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A diverse range of sources like, domestic, industries and vehicles contribute to the airborne particulate matter observed in the urban atmosphere. Impact of growing number of vehicles, with a compounded annual growth rate of 15%, on air quality is evident. The particles in gasoline and diesel vehicle exhaust carry distinctive combinations of certain chemical compounds. The prominence of their chemical signature in ambient particulate matter is thus a qualitative but direct indication of gasoline and diesel vehicles' relative importance as sources of emissions. The vehicle emission profiles generated, by PM characterization together with the ambient particulate matter speciation data, could be a realistic input to the source apportionment study for identification of sources of air pollution.

Variety of metals and elastomers/plastics are used in vehicle fuel systems. Though higher ethanol in gasoline can lead to efficient burning of fuel, material compatibility of non-metals is one of the major issues of concern. Material compatibility issue needs to be addressed before using higher contents of ethanol in gasoline because of reasons like permeation, swelling, leaching and plasticization, which lead to loss of material properties and subsequently resulting into field failures. For assessment of whether the fuel system will be able to perform as intended for its complete design life, it is necessary to know the impact of use of modified fuel on fuel system components. The impact on the in-use vehicles is particularly important in Indian context, where vehicles even more than 10 years old are plying. Most of the vehicles have not been designed for the 10% ethanol gasoline blend except for a few 4-wheelers.