FACT SHEET

FEBRUARY 2022

Remote emissions sensing in Seoul

Cities in South Korea have established low-emission Fuel type
zone (LEZ) programs to reduce emissions from in-use Diesel 50
vehicles and improve urban air quality. In the capital Gasoline
15
area, light-duty diesel vehicles with an emissions
classification of Grade 5 manufactured before 2002
40
or 2005, depending on size, are banned from entering
the zones. As a further step, Seoul established a Green
Transport Zone in December 2019 which bans all diesel
NO emissions (g/kg fuel)

CO emissions (g/kg fuel)

and gasoline Grade 5 vehicles from entering the zone 10 30
(Figure 1). A new TRUE initiative study, performed in
collaboration with the Seoul Metropolitan Government
and Korea Environment Corporation (K-eco), analyzed
20
remote sensing data to inform the future design of the
Green Transport Zone. 5

KEY FINDINGS 10

• The analysis of the remote sensing data from the

Seoul campaign shows that, for gasoline light-duty
0 0
vehicles (LDVs), emissions increase as the emission 24,248 271,413 206,426 31,121 21,572 1,505 11,761 7,531 8,987 24,

grades increase. In addition, while the CO and HC

emissions from diesel light-duty passenger vehicles
are relatively low, the NO emissions from Grade 4
diesel LDVs are relatively high and are even higher
than NO emissions from their Grade 5 counterparts.
Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Unknown Gra
Figure 2. NO emissions from light-duty passenger vehicles by
emission grade. Error bars indicate the 95% confidence interval. The
number
6 of measurements is presented at the bottom of each bar.

0.75
HC emissions (g/kg fuel)

4
UV smoke (g/kg fuel)

0.50

2
0.25

0 0.00
24,248 271,413 206,426 31,121 21,572 1,505 11,761 7,531 8,987 24,
Figure 1. Location of Green Transportation Zone in the Seoul Metropolitan area.

Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3 Grade 4 Grade 5 Unknown Gra

 • NO emissions of Grade 3 gasoline LDVs are still one After−treatment technology
third of those of Grade 3 diesel LDVs, even though Grade 3 diesel with DPF
1.00
Grade 3 gasoline LDVs are about one decade older Grade 3 gasoline
Grade 5 diesel with DPF
than Grade 3 diesel LDVs.
Grade 5 diesel without filter
• UV smoke, Grade 5 diesel LDVs retrofitted with
a diesel particulate filter (DPF) is 37% lower
0.75
than Grade 5 diesel LDVs without DPF but is 4.2
times higher than Grade 3 diesel vehicle with a

UV smoke (g/kg fuel)

DPF originally equipped. This implies that there
are considerable differences in the efficiency of
retrofitted and original DPFs. 0.50

RECOMMENDATIONS
FOR THE GREEN 0.25
TRANSPORT ZONE
• Real-world NO emissions from Grade 4 diesel LDVs
measured are comparable or even higher than
Grade 5 diesel LDVs. Currently, Grade 5 vehicles are 0.00
206,426 31,121 2,692 8,877
banned from entering the Green Transport Zone in
Seoul. This analysis indicates that emissions from Light passenger vehicle type
Grade 4 vehicles are not lower than those from
Figure 3. UV smoke from Grade 5 DPF-retrofitted diesel LDVs
Grade 5 and should be banned from the Green compared with Grade 5 diesel LDVs without filters and Grade 3
Transport Zone as well. diesel and gasoline LDVs.
• UV smoke from Grade 5 diesel LDVs retrofitted with
a DPF are 37% lower than those without, but this should consider polices to encourage the retirement
reduction efficiency is much lower than expected. of the older vehicle fleet rather than encouraging
Therefore, the Seoul Metropolitan Government retrofitting the vehicles with DPFs.

TO FIND OUT MORE

For details on the Seoul remote-sensing project and related questions,
contact Liuhanzi Yang, liuhanzi.yang@theicct.org.
For more information on TRUE, visit www.trueinitiative.org.

TRUE—The Real Urban Emissions Initiative FIA Foundation, 60 Trafalgar Square, London WC2N 5DS, United Kingdom
For more information contact: true@fiafoundation.org | @TRUE_Emissions | www.trueinitiative.org