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ผลกระทบของยานยนต์ที่ ใช้เชื้ อเพลิ งฟอสซิ ลต่อสิ่ งแวดล้อม 72 The Journal of the Royal Institute of Thailand Vol. 38 No. 3 July-Sep 2013 Abstract Environmental Effects of Emission from Fossil Fuel-Powered Vehicles Chongrak Polprasert Associate Fellow of the Academy of Science, The Royal Institute, Thailand and Faculty of Engineering, Thammasat University Pannawee Mekwichai Asian Institute of Technology With the rapid population growth and urbanization, the metropolises in Thailand have been facing serious air pollution problems, especially in the Bangkok area. Due to the increase in vehicle fleets, the total number of vehicles registered in Thailand is dramatically rising at over 1 million motor vehicles annually. Consequently, in B.E. 2555, the number of vehicles in Thailand was around 32 millions, with the Bangkok metropolis having approximately 7 million vehicles. The rapid increase of these vehicle fleets has led to serious traffic congestion on the road network. The more the fuel is burned, the more various types of exhaust emission are released to the atmo- sphere, such as particulate matters (PMs), ground level ozone (O 3 ), nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ), sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ), carbon monoxide (CO) and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These exhaust emissions have become a severe problem, adversely affect- ing the people’s health and the ambient air quality. Furthermore, the greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector are on the increasing trend due to the use of petroleum products including diesel, gasoline, fuel oil, jet fuel and liquid petroleum gas. All these fossil fuels are the main source of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) pollutant in the atmosphere which causes global warming and climate change. To alleviate the above problems, the concerned agencies should promote development of mass transit and non-motorized transport infrastructures as well as the use of alternative energy for transportation such as electric vehicles (hybrid, plug- in hybrid and battery electric vehicle), eco-cars or biofuels in order to cope with the impact of air pollution in Thailand. Keywords: air pollution, traffic congestion, exhaust emission, greenhouse gas, petroleum products, electric vehicles