MOVES2010 Errata/Information Sheet
EPA-420-B-10-026

May 2010

Assessment and Standards Division

Office of Transportation and Air Quality

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

MOVES2010 Errata/Information Sheet
EPA-420-B-10-026 

 MOVES2010 Errata/Information Sheet 

May 15, 2010 

This document lists substantive errors and concerns that have been identified for 

MOVES2010. Some of the items listed here are errors for which we have solutions. Others are 

areas where MOVES users should exercise caution in selecting MOVES inputs and in interpreting 

MOVES results. This document fully replaces the December 22, 2009 MOVES2010 

Errata/Information Sheet. 

If you find problems with MOVES that are not on this list, please let us know by emailing 

the MOVES team at mobile@epa.gov . We will update this list as needed. Thank you for helping 

us improve the MOVES model. 

Data Errors Fixed With May 15, 2010 Database 

EPA has developed a replacement default database to be used with the previously released 

MOVES2010 code. The May 15, 2010 database and instructions for its use are available on the 

MOVES web page: http://www.epa.gov/otaq/models/moves/index.htm . 

Error in 12212009 Default 

Database 

Repair in 05152010 

Default Database 

Implications 

1. The ratios used to compute 

nitrogen oxide (NO) and nitrogen 

dioxide (NO2) from NOx are 

incorrect. NOx emission rates 

are not affected by this error. 

 The replacement 

database includes 

correct NO and NO2 

fractions. 

NO and NO2 results generated with 

previous versions of the database 

should be discarded. New runs should 

use the revised default database 

MOVES2010 NOx results required for 

ozone State Implementation Plans and 

ozone conformity determinations are 

unaffected. The greenhouse gas nitrous 

oxide (N2O) also is unaffected. 

2. In some cases, when more 

than one sourcetype is requested, 

evaporative permeation 

emissions may be overestimated 

by a few percent. The error 

affects HC species and most air 

toxics. 

The replacement 

database includes 

tank temperature 

inputs by individual 

source type. 

Averaged over a 24-hour day, the 

impact of this error is quite small. 

However, users investigating 

evaporative emissions as a function of 

hour of the day may wish to re-run 

existing results with the revised 

database. New runs should use the 

revised default database 
MOVES2010 Errata/Information Sheet EPA-420-B-10-026 

3. Fuel effects for diesel air 

toxics and VOC emissions 

have some inaccuracies in 

calendar years 1999 through 

2006. 

The replacement database 

includes updated diesel 

fuel effects and HC 

speciation for these years 

Users who have modeled calendar year 

1999-2006 VOC and air toxics from 

diesel vehicles should discard these 

results. New runs should use the 

revised default database. 

When using the fuel importer, users 

should choose an existing 

fuelformulationid with the desired 

fuelsubtypeid (which for gasoline fuels 

is mainly dependent on ethanol 

volume). They may modify the fuel 

properties to match the fuel they wish 

to model. 

4. In some cases, results for 

hydrocarbons and related 

species in calendar years 

1999-2004 are incorrect for 

gasolines containing 

ethanol. 

The replacement database 

assigns the correct fuel 

subtype to all ethanol 

blends. 

Users who have modeled THC or other 

hydrocarbons/air toxics from gasoline 

vehicles for calendar years 1999-2004 

should discard these results. New runs 

should use the revised default database. 

When using the fuel importer, users 

should choose an existing 

fuelformulationid with the desired 

fuelsubtypeid (which for gasoline fuels 

is mainly dependent on ethanol 

volume). They may modify the fuel 

properties to match the fuel they wish 

to model. 

5. Elemental carbon (EC) 

and organic carbon (OC) 

start emissions for light duty 

diesel cars, passenger trucks 

and commercial trucks of 

model year 2021-and-later 

are not correct. 

The replacement default 

database includes a new 

emission rate table with 

the correct diesel 

emission rates. 

Light-duty diesels generally are a small 

part of the fleet, but users modeling 

calendar years 2021-and-later may wish 

to re-run existing results with the 

revised database. New runs should use 

the revised default database. 

6. Check boxes to select 

Ethanol and MTBE for 

“extended idle exhaust” and 

“crankcase extended idle 

exhaust” are extraneous. 

The replacement default 

database removes these 

check boxes. 

MOVES calculates extended idle only 

from diesel vehicles. MTBE & 

Ethanol are not emitted by diesel 

vehicles. 

May 15, 2010 Page 2 
MOVES2010 Errata/Information Sheet EPA-420-B-10-026 

Input/Data Completeness Issues Requiring User Caution 

Issue Implications 

7. Importing data from spreadsheets using the 

County Data Manager or the Project Level Data 

Manager occasionally does not result in a green 

check in the graphical user interface, even 

though there appear to be no problems with the 

imported data and MOVES runs successfully. 

Users should remain cautious when using 

databases that indicate a red “X” for any of the 

input tabs, since other problems, such as 

incomplete data, will also prevent a green check 

from appearing. If necessary, users can export 

the imported data or examine the user database 

tables directly using the MySQL Query Browser 

to assure that the data in the database is 

appropriate and complete. 

8. When using the Project Level Data Manager, 

misleading results may occur when entering an 

Operating Mode Distribution if the Links 

information is not correct. 

Users should make sure the Links tab is green. 

When filling out a run specification make sure 

all of the chosen road types are present in the 

Project Level. 

9. If Custom Domain is chosen, the Zone Road 

Activity tab in the County Data Manager may 

have an erroneous green check even though no 

data has been imported. 

Users should check this tab to make sure that it 

includes correct data. For Custom Domains, the 

ZoneRoadActivity table should have a 

SHOAllocFactor equal to one for each Road 

Type. 

10. When importing user information on fuels 

with the FuelFormulation importer (available 

through the CountyDataManager, 

ProjectDomainManager, and Data Importer) the 

user has the option to enter new 

fuelformulationids. If this is done, MOVES 

incorrectly uses the market shares for both the 

default fuels and the new fuels, which can 

incorrectly increase emissions by 100%. 

Until a fix is available, users should not create 

new fuelformulationids. Instead, they should 

choose an existing fuelformulationid with the 

desired fuelsubtypeid (which for gasoline fuels 

is mainly dependent on ethanol volume). They 

may modify the fuel properties to match the fuel 

they wish to model. 

Users who have used default fuelformulationids 

are unaffected by this error. Users who have 

created new own fuelformulationids should 

rerun MOVES2010 using the approach 

suggested here. 

11. When creating a retrofit parameter file to 

import with the On Road Retrofit Strategies 

panel, do not use the PollutantID, ProcessID, 

FuelTypeID or SourceTypeID numbers. Use 

the text names for these parameters. 

See user guide for detailed instructions. 

May 15, 2010 Page 3 
MOVES2010 Errata/Information Sheet EPA-420-B-10-026 

May 15, 2010 Page 4 

Output Issues Requiring User Caution 

Issue Implications 

12. MOVES does not produce output for 

acrolein, benzene, 1,3 butadiene, and 

formaldehyde for diesel vehicles if you request 

processes other than the running exhaust 

process. This problem does not affect gasoline 

vehicles. 

If you require toxic emissions output, you will 

need to do a separate run that only includes the 

running exhaust process. 

Note, MOVES does not currently model the 

diesel vehicle emissions of these pollutants from 

processes other than running exhaust. See also 

Issue 14 below. 

13. When computing emission rates, the portion 

of evaporative emissions that occur while 

vehicles are running is only reported in the 

RatePerDistance table if a running exhaust 

process is also selected. 

When computing emission rates for evaporative 

processes, always select at least one Exhaust 

Running emission process. 

14. The Extended Idle process does not produce 

records for Benzene, Formaldehyde, 1,3-

Butadiene, Acetaldehyde or Acrolein even 

though there are check boxes for these 

pollutants in the Pollutants and Processes Panel. 

If the user requires results for these pollutants 

for the extended idle emission process, the user 

will need to calculate these pollutants manually 

using the results for Total Gaseous 

Hydrocarbons and Methane. 

15. In the Summary Reporter, if the output data 

is disaggregated by day or hour, the output 

database will contain results for only two days 

in each month - a weekday (dayID 5) and a 

weekend-day (dayID 2) 

In this case, Summary Reporter should not be 

used to display results for a month or year, since 

the current reporter code erroneously simply 

sums these two days together. The user should 

either do a MOVES run requesting output by 

month or distinguish by dayID in the report and 

then externally weight the result according to the 

type of day to see meaningful result for a month 

(e.g. 22 weekdays and 9 weekend-days in a 31-

day month) or year (e.g. 261 weekdays and 104 

weekend-days in a 365-day year). 

16. The post-processing MySQL script. 

“DecodeMOVESOutput.sql” generates an error 

message and fails when run on output files that 

include certain pollutants 

EPA has created a revised script that fixes this 

problem. The script is available on the MOVES 

web site, along with installation instructions.