Life cycle emissions and cost model for urban light duty vehicles

The growth of vehicle sales and use internationally requires the consumption of significant quantities of energy and materials, and contributes to the deterioration of air-quality and climate conditions. Advanced propulsion systems and electric drive vehicles have substantially different characteristics and impacts. They require life cycle assessments and detailed comparisons with gasoline powered vehicles which, in turn, should lead to critical updates of traditional models and assumptions. For a comprehensive comparison of advanced and traditional light duty vehicles, a model is developed that integrates external costs, including emissions and time losses, with societal and consumer life cycle costs. Life cycle emissions and time losses are converted into costs for seven urban light duty vehicles. The results, which are based on vehicle technology characteristics and transportation impacts on environment, facilitate vehicle comparisons and support policy making in transportation. Substantially, more sustainable urban transportation can be achieved in the short-term by promoting policies that increase vehicle occupancy; in the intermediate-term by increasing the share of hybrid vehicles in the car market and in the long-term by the widespread use of electric vehicles. A sensitivity-analysis of life cost results revealed that vehicle costs change significantly for different geographical areas depending on vehicle taxation, pricing of gasoline, electric power and pollution. Current practices in carbon and air quality pricing favor oil and coal based technologies. However, increasing the cost of electricity from coal and other fossil fuels would increase the variable cost for electric vehicles, and tend to favor the variable cost of hybrid vehicles.     

Compliance with MARPOL Annex VI regulation 14 by ships in the Gulf of Guinea sub-region: Issues,challenges and opportunities

The negative environmental and health impacts association with high sulphur dioxide emissions from shipboard machineries have been raised by various stakeholders within the marine transportation sector. It is against this backdrop that the International Maritime Organisation under the MARPOL Annex VI regulation 14 has capped sulphur emission to 0.1% for Sulphur Emission Control Areas and 0.5% for the other shipping nations. However, ship owners in the Gulf of Guinea (GoG) sub-region are facing multitudes of challenges in meeting up with this new IMO regulation. This paper aims to identify the main barriers hampering effective compliance to this new regulation by ships operating in the GoG, rank the barriers, and then discuss the possible opportunities that may arise as a result of addressing the challenges. To identify the main barriers, experts with several years of experience in the maritime industry from Ghana and Cameroun were used while multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) method combining analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) was employed to rank the barriers. Other methods such as fuzzy AHP (FAHP), rank-order centroid (ROC) and TOPSIS were combined to validate the result of the study. The findings indicate that lack of infrastructure, lack of comprehensive marine air pollution laws and high capital and operational costs of sulphur reduction solutions emerged as the top three ranked barriers. The findings of this study can be useful to ship owners and policy makers in dealing with the issues of marine air pollution.     

基于生长曲线函数的货车运营环节碳达峰研究

货车是我国大气环境污染的重要来源之一，也是影响我国碳达峰总体目标实现的重要因 素。本文从货车运营环节入手，在运用生长曲线函数对货车保有量进行预测的基础上，对不同类 型货车的保有量和单车碳排放变化进行研究，并从货车节能技术发展、新能源货车推广和应用进 程两方面入手，分3种情景对货车运营环节中产生的碳排放总量趋势进行预判，推演货车运营环 节的碳达峰时间。研究结果表明，只有同时加快货车节能技术发展以及新能源货车推广和应用 进程，货车运营环节中产生的碳排放总量规模才能得到有效抑制并逐渐减少。若到 2030 年货 车单车燃料消耗水平较 2019 年降低 20%以上，新能源货车在货车整体保有量中的占比达到 20%，到 2060 年货车单车燃料消耗水平较 2019 年降低 50%，新能源货车占比达到 50%，则货车 运营环节碳达峰时间将缩短至2030年左右实现，2030年后货车运营环节产生的碳排放总量规 模将逐渐减少。     

Traffic modelling in system boundary expansion of road pavement life cycle assessment

This paper uses a case study of a UK inter-urban road, to explore the impact of extending the system boundary of road pavement life cycle assessment (LCA) to include increased traffic emissions due to delays during maintenance. Some previous studies have attempted this but have been limited to hypothetical scenarios or simplified traffic modelling, with no validation or sensitivity analysis. In this study, micro-simulation modelling of traffic was used to estimate emissions caused by delays at road works, for several traffic management options. The emissions were compared to those created by the maintenance operation, estimated using an LCA model. In this case study, the extra traffic emissions caused by delays at road works are relatively small, compared to those from the maintenance process, except for hydrocarbon emissions. However, they are generally close to, or above, the materiality threshold recommended in PAS2050 for estimating carbon footprints, and reach 5–10% when traffic flow levels are increased (hypothetically) or when traffic management is imposed outside times of lowest traffic flow. It is recommended, therefore, that emissions due to traffic disruption at road works should be included within the system boundary of road pavement LCA and carbon footprint studies and should be considered in developing guidelines for environmental product declarations of road pavement maintenance products and services.     

A comparative life-cycle energy and emissions analysis for intercity passenger transportation in the U.S. by aviation,intercity bus,and automobile

Intercity passenger trips constitute a significant source of energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and criteria pollutant emissions. The most commonly used city-to-city modes in the United States include aircraft, intercity bus, and automobile. This study applies state-of-the-practice models to assess life-cycle fuel consumption and pollutant emissions for intercity trips via aircraft, intercity bus, and automobile. The analyses compare the fuel and emissions impacts of different travel mode scenarios for intercity trips ranging from 200 to 1600 km. Because these modes operate differently with respect to engine technology, fuel type, and vehicle capacity, the modeling techniques and modeling boundaries vary significantly across modes. For aviation systems, much of the energy and emissions are associated with auxiliary equipment activities, infrastructure power supply, and terminal activities, in addition to the vehicle operations between origin/destination. Furthermore, one should not ignore the embodied energy and initial emissions from the manufacturing of the vehicles, and the construction of airports, bus stations, highways and parking lots. Passenger loading factors and travel distances also significantly influence fuel and emissions results on a per-traveler basis. The results show intercity bus is generally the most fuel-efficient mode and produced the lowest per-passenger-trip emissions for the entire range of trip distances examined. Aviation is not a fuel-efficient mode for short trips (<500 km), primarily due to the large energy impacts associated with takeoff and landing, and to some extent from the emissions of ground support equipment associated with any trip distance. However, aviation is more energy efficient and produces less emissions per-passenger-trip than low-occupancy automobiles for trip distances longer than 700–800 km. This study will help inform policy makers and transportation system operators about how differently each intercity system perform across all activities, and provides a basis for future policies designed to encourage mode shifts by range of service. The estimation procedures used in this study can serve as a reference for future analyses of transportation scenarios.     

Greenhouse gas emissions from road construction: An assessment of alternative staging approaches

The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with road construction activities are analyzed. The main focus of this analysis is on the vehicle emissions associated with alternative project staging approaches, specifically a full closure of the road during construction, versus an intermittent road closure. The analysis includes the direct and upstream emissions associated with materials, construction equipment, mobilization of resources to the work site, and maintenance activity associated with the project over its lifetime. The analysis is based on one case study of a road project in New Jersey. The assumptions underlying the staging analysis are based on hypothetical approaches. Results provide an assessment of the main sources of project related emissions and the ability to minimize total project emissions by minimizing traffic disruption. In the analysis with a full closure of the road, traffic disruption accounts for 26% of total emissions, while with an intermittent road closure, traffic disruption accounts for only 2% of total emissions. The other main sources are from materials and life-cycle maintenance. The analysis demonstrates the feasibility of minimizing project related GHG emissions during road construction activities.     

Predicting market potential and environmental benefits of deploying electric taxis in Nanjing,China

This paper investigates the market potential and environmental benefits of replacing internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles with battery electric vehicles (BEVs) in the taxi fleet in Nanjing, China. Vehicle trajectory data collected by onboard global positioning system (GPS) units are used to study the travel patterns of taxis. The impacts of charger power, charging infrastructure coverage, and taxi apps on the feasibility of electric taxis are quantified, considering taxi drivers’ recharging behavior and operating activities. It is found that (1) depending on the charger power and coverage, 19% (with AC Level 2 chargers and 20% charger network coverage) to 56% (with DC chargers and 100% charger network coverage) of the ICE vehicles can be replaced by electric taxis without driving pattern changes; (2) by using taxi apps to find nearby passengers and charging stations, drivers could utilize the empty cruising time to charge the battery, which may increase the acceptance of BEVs by up to 82.6% compared to the scenario without taxi apps; and (3) tailpipe emissions in urban areas could be significantly reduced with taxi electrification: a mixed taxi fleet with 46% compressed-natural-gas-powered (CNG) and 54% electricity-powered vehicles can reduce the tailpipe emissions by 48% in comparison with the fleet of 100% CNG taxis.     

A multi-objective optimization model for sustainable logistics facility location

This paper offers an exploratory study of sustainable facility location. The methodology, based on the classical uncapacitated facility location problem, provides decision makers with a multi-objective optimization model to determine the trade-off among economic, service and environmental considerations. Our results indicate that it may be desirable to open more facilities than optimal from a narrow economic perspective to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions of transport and to improve service reliability.     

重型柴油车NOx排放远程监测准确性研究

文章通过采用不同浓度的反应剂来模拟重型国六柴油车正常状态、临界超标及SCR性能失效状态下的实际道路NOx排放,从而研究远程排放管理平台对超标车型识别的效果。试验结果表明,NOx临界超标与SCR完全失效状态下,远程排放管理平台采集的国六整车实际道路NOx排放与PEMS设备结果基本一致,而正常状态下,尿素过量喷射导致的NH3泄露会对车载NOx传感器精度造成影响,进而导致远程排放管理平台采集的国六整车NOx排放与PEMS设备存在偏差。     

Benefit of speed reduction for ships in different weather conditions

Currently, the shipping industry is facing a great challenge of reducing emissions. Reducing ship speeds will reduce the emissions in the immediate future with no additional infrastructure. However, a detailed investigation is required to verify the claim that a 10% speed reduction would lead to 19% fuel savings (Faber et al., 2012).This paper investigates fuel savings due to speed reduction using detailed modeling of ship performance. Three container ships, two bulk carriers, and one tanker, representative of the shipping fleet, have been designed. Voyages have been simulated by modeling calm water resistance, wave resistance, propulsion efficiency, and engine limits. Six ships have been simulated in various weather conditions at different speeds. Potential fuel savings have been estimated for a range of speed reductions in realistic weather.It is concluded that the common assumption of cubic speed-power relation can cause a significant error in the estimation of bunker consumption. Simulations in different seasons have revealed that fuel savings due to speed reduction are highly weather dependent. Therefore, a simple way to include the effect of weather in shipping transport models has been proposed.Speed reduction can lead to an increase in the number of ships to fulfill the transport demand. Therefore, the emission reduction potential of speed reduction strategy, after accounting for the additional ships, has been studied. Surprisingly, when the speed is reduced by 30%, fuel savings vary from 2% to 45% depending on ship type, size and weather conditions. Fuel savings further reduce when the auxiliary engines are considered.