California Air Resources Board

SACRAMENTO - The California Air Resources Board is set to host an exhibit of ARB’s robust set of tools used to measure a broad range of vehicle air pollutants regulated by the agency on Thursday at its Mobile Source Measurements Showcase.



WHO: California Air Resources Board

WHAT: Real-world examples of the kinds of technology ARB uses to measure air pollution from cars, trucks and other vehicles. Thirteen exhibits in all, including:

• A Polaris All-Terrain Vehicle atop a dynamometer — something like a treadmill for vehicles used to measure speed, torque and power;
• A briefcase-size PEMS mounted on a Harley Davidson motorcycle and separately on a Chevrolet Volt;
• An electric-powered Toyota RAV 4, which acts as a mobile platform for equipment used to assess concentrations of various pollutants in ambient air, such as along freeways;
• A Kenworth truck with wind tunnel and PEMS used to characterize and quantify emissions from heavy-duty diesel trucks.

WHEN:

• Thursday, May 22, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., ongoing displays.
• The Air Resources Board will take a guided 40-minute tour in the afternoon.

WHERE:

• 11th Street between H and I streets on the east side of the Cal/EPA headquarters building, 1001 I St., Sacramento.
• The exhibit continues on the second floor of the Cal/EPA building outside Byron Sher Auditorium.

BACKGROUND: Board members touring exhibits of real-world technology integrated with a semi-truck and trailer, a Chevy Volt, a Harley Davidson, an all-terrain vehicle and more.



The Showcase will focus on the evolution of high-tech tools used to measure emissions from on- and off-road vehicles. It will highlight a new paradigm for measuring vehicle emissions at ARB. While the agency continues to measure vehicle emissions in the laboratory, it is now deploying portable emissions measurement systems, or PEMS, effectively taking the laboratory to the vehicle.

This is enabling ARB to measure emissions from a much wider range of vehicles, such as off-road construction equipment, under testing conditions that more closely represent “real-world” operations.

Since its founding in 1967, the ARB has recognized that effective regulations to reduce motor vehicle emissions — the main source of smog-forming pollution in California — require a strong set of measurement tools and programs. Over the years, ARB has developed and deployed an increasingly sophisticated suite of measurement tools in order to understand the major sources of emissions from vehicles and assess the effectiveness of different types of emission control technologies.

Thursday’s Showcase is an opportunity to educate the public on the progressively more sensitive instruments needed to ensure California’s cars and trucks continue to get cleaner. While California has made a lot of progress cleaning up the air, there are still big challenges.

11th STREET WILL BE CLOSED BETWEEN H AND I STREETS FOR THE MOBILE SOURCE MEASUREMENTS SHOWCASE EVENT