Scholars@Duke
Daniel Loughlin

Daniel Loughlin

Adjunct Professor in Earth and Ocean Sciences
Earth and Climate Sciences
Office hours Email to schedule office hours.  

Selected Publications

Health and air pollutant emission impacts of net zero CO2 by 2050 scenarios from the energy modeling forum 37 study

Journal Article Energy and Climate Change · December 1, 2024 Carbon dioxide and non-greenhouse gas air pollutants are emitted from many of the same sources. Decarbonization actions thus typically yield air pollutant emission reductions, resulting in significant air quality benefits. Although several studies have hig ... Full text Cite

Evaluation of energy, carbon dioxide, and air emission implications of medium- and heavy-duty truck electrification in the United States using EPA’s regional TIMES energy systems model

Journal Article Environmental Research: Energy · November 21, 2024 AbstractElectrifying on-road trucking is a strategy for decarbonizing the transportation sector. While battery-electric trucks have zero tailpipe emissions, the associated increase in electric sector grid em ... Full text Cite

Air Quality, Health, and Equity Benefits of Carbon Neutrality and Clean Air Pathways in China.

Journal Article Environmental science & technology · August 2024 In the pursuit of carbon neutrality, China's 2060 targets have been largely anchored in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, with less emphasis on the consequential benefits for air quality and public health. This study pivots to this critical nexus, explori ... Full text Cite

Incorporating upstream emissions into electric sector nitrogen oxide reduction targets.

Journal Article Cleaner engineering and technology · December 2020 Electricity production is a major source of air pollutants in the U.S. Policies to reduce these emissions typically result in the power industry choosing to apply controls or switch to fuels with lower combustion emissions. However, the life-cycle emission ... Full text Cite

The quest for improved air quality may push China to continue its CO2 reduction beyond the Paris Commitment.

Journal Article Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · November 2020 China is challenged with the simultaneous goals of improving air quality and mitigating climate change. The "Beautiful China" strategy, launched by the Chinese government in 2020, requires that all cities in China attain 35 μg/m3 or below for an ... Full text Cite

Erratum: State-level drivers of future fine particulate matter mortality in the United States (Environmental Research Letters (2019) 14 (124071) DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/ab59cb)

Journal Article Environmental Research Letters · October 1, 2020 During typesetting, an error was introduced into the text that describes the terms in equation (3). The following equation in that description: (Formula Presented) where the dot between the last two terms is replaced by a minus sign. ... Full text Cite

Air pollution control strategies directly limiting national health damages in the US.

Journal Article Nature communications · February 2020 Exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) from fuel combustion significantly contributes to global and US mortality. Traditional control strategies typically reduce emissions for specific air pollutants and sectors to maintain pollutant concen ... Full text Cite

State-level drivers of future fine particulate matter mortality in the United States.

Journal Article Environmental research letters : ERL [Web site] · December 2019 Future fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations and resulting health impacts will be largely determined by factors such as energy use, fuel choices, emission controls, state and national policies, and demographcs. In this study, ... Full text Cite

Market Sensitivity of Solar-Fossil Hybrid Electricity Generation to Price, Efficiency, Policy, and Fuel Projections.

Journal Article Clean technologies and environmental policy · January 2019 Ideally, new electricity generating units will have low capital costs, low fuel costs, minimal environmental impacts, and satisfy demand without concerns of intermittency. When expanding generating capacity, candidate technologies can be evaluated against ... Full text Cite

Evolution of the United States Energy System and Related Emissions under Varying Social and Technological Development Paradigms: Plausible Scenarios for Use in Robust Decision Making.

Journal Article Environmental science & technology · July 2018 The energy system is the primary source of air pollution. Thus, evolution of the energy system into the future will affect society's ability to maintain air quality. Anticipating this evolution is difficult because of inherent uncertainty in predicting fut ... Full text Cite

Exploring the role of natural gas power plants with carbon capture and storage as a bridge to a low-carbon future.

Journal Article Clean technologies and environmental policy · December 2017 Natural gas combined-cycle (NGCC) turbines with carbon capture and storage (CCS) could be an important source of low-carbon electricity in the future. Factors affecting the market competitiveness of NGCC-CCS are examined by conducting a sensitivity analysi ... Full text Cite

Effects of recent energy system changes on CO2 projections for the United States

Journal Article Clean Technologies and Environmental Policy · November 2017 Full text Cite

Marginal abatement cost curve for nitrogen oxides incorporating controls, renewable electricity, energy efficiency, and fuel switching.

Journal Article Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association (1995) · October 2017 A marginal abatement cost curve (MACC) traces out the relationship between the quantity of pollution abated and the marginal cost of abating each additional unit. In the context of air quality management, MACCs are typically developed by sorting control te ... Full text Cite

Role of future scenarios in understanding deep uncertainty in long-term air quality management.

Journal Article Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association (1995) · November 2015 UnlabelledThe environment and its interactions with human systems, whether economic, social, or political, are complex. Relevant drivers may disrupt system dynamics in unforeseen ways, making it difficult to predict future conditions. This kind of ... Full text Cite

Analysis of alternative pathways for reducing nitrogen oxide emissions.

Journal Article Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association (1995) · September 2015 UnlabelledStrategies for reducing tropospheric ozone (O3) typically include modifying combustion processes to reduce the formation of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and applying control devices that remove NOx from the exhaust gases of power plants, indust ... Full text Cite

ESP v2.0: enhanced method for exploring emission impacts of future scenarios in the United States – addressing spatial allocation

Journal Article Geoscientific Model Development · June 17, 2015 Abstract. The Emission Scenario Projection (ESP) method produces future-year air pollutant emissions for mesoscale air quality modeling applications. We present ESP v2.0, which expands upon ESP v1.0 by spatially allocating future-year non-power sec ... Full text Cite

Spatially refined aerosol direct radiative forcing efficiencies.

Journal Article Environmental science & technology · September 2012 Global aerosol direct radiative forcing (DRF) is an important metric for assessing potential climate impacts of future emissions changes. However, the radiative consequences of emissions perturbations are not readily quantified nor well understood at the l ... Full text Cite

Evaluating the effects of climate change on summertime ozone using a relative response factor approach for policymakers.

Journal Article Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association (1995) · September 2012 UnlabelledThe impact of climate change on surface-level ozone is examined through a multiscale modeling effort that linked global and regional climate models to drive air quality model simulations. Results are quantified in terms of the relative r ... Full text Cite