Abstract
Within the transport sector, road transport is the largest source of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) emissions. Greater use of vehicles that run on clean alternative fuels can contribute to reduce CO2 emissions. This paper gives special attention to the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses and their comparison with conventional diesel buses, which in countries such as Serbia have a dominant share. Justification of using CNG buses in order to mitigate climate changes is measured by realised annual and average external costs of CO2 emissions. These external costs provide a basis for future use of economic instruments by which negative impacts of transport on the environment can be limited. Research of CO2 emissions and external costs of CO2 emissions in intercity bus service was conducted for three technical-technological concepts of CNG buses in comparison to the two types of conventional diesel buses. Analysis was carried out according to four various scenarios that define different operating conditions on the road network of the Serbia. Obtained results show that CNG buses reduce annual external costs of CO2 emissions by 2…24% compared to conventional diesel buses. Obtained average external costs of CO2 emissions per 100 bus-kms show to what extent their changes are a result of changes of external costs of CO2 emissions and to what extent they are due to changes of operating conditions on the road network.
Highlights
According to the latest data from the International Energy Agency, there are two sectors responsible for almost two thirds of the overall CO2 emissions worldwide in 2012, namely electricity and heat generation sector as the biggest CO2 emitter, with the share of 42%, and transport sector, with the share of 23% (IEA 2014)
Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses operating in intercity bus service incur less annual external costs of CO2 emissions than conventional diesel buses
If a bus is taken as an element of the transport system and as a direct consumer of fuel, the saving of external costs of CO2 emissions will be higher or lower due to the use of CNG and it will depend on a technical-technological bus concepts, i.e. engine type, preparation mode of the combustion mixture and use of compatible devices for the after-treatment of exhaust gases
Summary
According to the latest data from the International Energy Agency (https://www.iea.org), there are two sectors responsible for almost two thirds of the overall CO2 emissions worldwide in 2012, namely electricity and heat generation sector as the biggest CO2 emitter, with the share of 42%, and transport sector, with the share of 23% (IEA 2014). Differences between purchase costs of CNG and diesel buses keep reducing, and that for a twofold reason: first, because the costs of conventional diesel buses increase due to the constant tightening of emission standards and second, because investment costs of CNG buses are expected to decrease due to their large scale production and use (Lowell et al 2003; Wang-Helmreich, Lochner 2012; Düsterwald et al 2007) Bearing in mind these trends, as well as the increasing importance of sustainable transportation, a precise quantification of external costs of CO2 emission for alternative bus technologies, such as CNG buses, is important because it permits us to find out whether and in which time possible savings of external costs of CO2 emission could compensate for their high capital costs. The main goal of the research in this paper is the use of CNG buses in intercity bus service so that their efficiency could be monitored and determined in terms of reduction of CO2 emissions and external costs of CO2 emissions, when compared to conventional diesel buses
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