TAKEAWAY
Future electrification of vehicles in the northern Wasatch Front will be critical for addressing the area’s long-standing air pollution problems.
Along the Wasatch Front, on- and off-road vehicles account for 40 percent of emissions of human-caused volatile organic compounds and 70 percent of nitrogen oxides, the two precursors of summertime ozone pollution. In the future, those emissions could be dramatically reduced with vehicle electrification. The Wasatch Front is also impacted by particulate air pollution, a complex mixture of very fine airborne particles linked to a wide range of serious health effects including cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Direct emissions of particulate matterfrom on- and off-road vehicles, along with atmospheric chemical formation from vehicle-linked nitrogen oxides emissions, are significant contributors to particulate air pollution along the Wasatch Front. Analysis suggests that across the state of Utah, reducing exposure to particulate air pollution by electrifying long-haultrucks with a clean electric grid could produce health benefits on the order of $120 million per year.[1]
The National Science Foundation ASPIRE Engineering Research Center based at Utah State University has the goal of catalyzing sustainable and equitable transportation through widespread electrification of all classes of on- and off-road vehicles. The ASPIRE center is advancing both plug-in and wireless charging technologies, including integration of the transportation system, charging demand, and the electric grid. Through widespread vehicle electrification combined with clean electricity generation, ASPIRE aims to advance deep reductions in air pollution from the transportation sector.
References
- Jennifer Turk. (October 2022). Health Impacts of Vehicle Electrification in the US with a Special Emphasis on Heavy Duty Vehicles [Unpublished master’s thesis]. Utah State University.