Diesel engines are widely used in passenger/cargo transportation and military and construction applications. The dark exhausts coming out of tail pipes not only create discomfort visually, but also affect human health adversely. For control, in addition to the increasingly stricter new vehicle inspections, one of the keys to improve air quality is to promote inspection and proper maintenance work for vehicles in use. This project is intended to screen out polluting vehicles for exhaust tests on dynamometer through visual identification and citizens’ reporting of vehicles of high pollution potential. Failure in testing will result in punishment and second inspection as the combination of maintenance and inspection in one package. Also, to detect whether illegal fuel was used, sulfur content tests were carried out on fuel samples collected from gas stations, fuel depots and vehicles under exhaust tests within the jurisdiction. The project started from Mar 15 to Dec 20 2011. 1,810vehicle-times of diesel-fueled vehicles reported in for inspection, and 48 of them failed the inspection with a failure rate of 2.7%. 180 fuel samples were tested and none failed, resulting in a 0% of failure rate. Roadside inspections were performed on 13,095 vehicles, 142 of which failed the inspections with a failure rate of 1.08%. 558 diesel-fueled vehicles were spotted in the visual identification process and notified for inspection. For citizens’ reporting, 27 cases were reported and 27 vehicles were identified requiring inspection. As of Dec 20, 27 of them reported in for inspections, and all the reporters were replied. The project was successfully conducted to achieve the effects of urging vehicle inspections, proper adjustment and maintenance, and retirement of outdated vehicles. It is estimated to reduce the production of TSP and PM10 by51.1 tons each.

Chiayi city;air quality;diesel cars;Diesel-Fueled Vehicles