Energy Consumption and Greenhouse Gas Emission of Alternative Vehicle Fuels in Thailand Using Well to Wheel Assessment

Life-cycle analysis on energy consumption and GHG emission intensities of alternative vehicle fuels in China

Alternative-fuel-vehicle policy interactions increase U.S. greenhouse gas emissions

With the increasingly prominent environmental problems and the decline of fossil fuel reserves, the reduction of energy consumption (EC) has become a common goal in the world. Urea industry is a typical energy-intensive chemical industry. However, studies just focus on the breakthrough of specific production technology or only consider the EC in the production stage. This results in a lack of evaluations of the life cycle of energy consumption (LcEC). In order to provide a systematic, scientific, and practical theoretical basis for the industrial upgrading and the energy transformation, LcEC of urea production and the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated in the process of EC are studied in this paper. The results show that the average LcEC is about 30.1 GJ/t urea. The EC of the materials preparation stage, synthesis stage, and waste-treatment stage (ECRMP, ECPP, ECWD) is about 0.388 GJ/t urea, 24.8 GJ/t urea, and 4.92 GJ/t urea, accounting for 1.3%, 82.4%, and 16.3% of LcEC, respectively. Thus, the synthesis stage is a dominant energy-consumer, in which 15.4 GJ/t urea of energy, accounting for 62.0% of ECpp, supports steam consumption. According to the energy distribution analysis, it can be concluded that coal presents the primary energy in the process of urea production, which supports 94.4% of LcEC. The proportion of coal consumption is significantly higher than that of the average of 59% in China. Besides, the GHG emissions in the synthesis stage are obviously larger than that in the other stage, with an average of 2.18 t eq.CO2/t urea, accounting for 81.3% of the life cycle of GHG (LcGHG) emissions. In detail, CO2 is the dominant factor accounting for 90.0% of LcGHG emissions, followed by CH4, while N2O is negligible. Coal is the primary source of CO2 emissions. The severe high proportion of coal consumption in the life cycle of urea production is responsible for this high CO2 content of GHG emissions. Therefore, for industrial urea upgrading and energy transformation, reducing coal consumption will still be an important task for energy structure transformation. At the same time, the reformation of synthesis technologies, especially for steam energy-consuming technology, will mainly reduce the EC of the urea industry. Furthermore, the application of green energy will be conducive to a win-win situation for both economic and environmental benefits.

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">A heavy-duty vehicle (HDV) module of the Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation (GREET<sup>TM</sup>) model has been developed at Argonne National Laboratory. The fuel-cycle GREET model has been published extensively and contains data on fuel-cycles and vehicle operation of light-duty vehicles. The addition of the HDV module to the GREET model allows for well-to-wheel (WTW) analyses of heavy-duty advanced technology and alternative fuel vehicles (AFVs), which has been lacking in the literature. WTW analyses of HDVs becomes increasingly important to understand the fuel consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions impacts of newly enacted and future HDV regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.</div><div class="htmlview paragraph">This paper introduces the new GREET HDV module, which allows for the analysis of fuel consumption, GHG emissions, and air pollutant emissions of 12 conventional (i.e. diesel and/or gasoline) HDV types, including combination long-haul freight trucks, refuse trucks, single-unit delivery trucks, transit buses, and school buses. In addition, the HDV module includes 10 AFVs, including biodiesel, ethanol, natural gas, propane, and hybrid electric, that are currently being either demonstrated or deployed in the United States. Using diesel, gasoline, and natural gas HDVs as examples, we identify the key drivers in HDV WTW analysis including HDV duty-cycle, fuel economy, functional units, and vehicle emission factors.</div></div>

Tsinghua life-cycle analysis model (TLCAM) has been used to examine the primary fossil energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for natural gas- (NG-) based alternative vehicle fuels in China. The results show that (1) compress NG- and liquid NG-powered vehicles have similar well-to-wheels (WTW) fossil energy uses to conventional gasoline- and diesel-fueled vehicles, but differences emerge with the distance of NG transportation. Additionally, thanks to NG having a lower carbon content than petroleum, CNG- and LNG-powered vehicles emit 10–20% and 5–10% less GHGs than gasoline- and diesel-fueled vehicles, respectively; (2) gas-to-liquid- (GTL-) powered vehicles involve approximately 50% more WTW fossil energy uses than conventional gasoline- and diesel-fueled vehicles, primarily because of the low efficiency of GTL production. Nevertheless, since NG has a lower carbon content than petroleum, GTL-powered vehicles emit approximately 30% more GHGs than conventional-fuel vehicles; (3) The carbon emission intensity of the LNG energy chain is highly sensitive to the efficiency of NG liquefaction and the form of energy used in that process.

Energy consumption and GHG emissions of six biofuel pathways by LCA in (the) People’s Republic of China

PurposeThe well-to-wheel (WTW) methodology is widely used for policy support in road transport. It can be seen as a simplified life cycle assessment (LCA) that focuses on the energy consumption and CO2 emissions only for the fuel being consumed, ignoring other stages of a vehicle’s life cycle. WTW results are therefore different from LCA results. In order to close this gap, the authors propose a hybrid WTW+LCA methodology useful to assess the greenhouse gas (GHG) profiles of road vehicles.MethodsThe proposed method (hybrid WTW+LCA) keeps the main hypotheses of the WTW methodology, but integrates them with LCA data restricted to the global warming potential (GWP) occurring during the manufacturing of the battery pack. WTW data are used for the GHG intensity of the EU electric mix, after a consistency check with the main life cycle impact (LCI) sources available in literature.Results and discussionA numerical example is provided, comparing GHG emissions due to the use of a battery electric vehicle (BEV) with emissions from an internal combustion engine vehicle. This comparison is done both according to the WTW approach (namely the JEC WTW version 4) and the proposed hybrid WTW+LCA method. The GHG savings due to the use of BEVs calculated with the WTW-4 range between 44 and 56 %, while according to the hybrid method the savings are lower (31–46 %). This difference is due to the GWP which arises as a result of the manufacturing of the battery pack for the electric vehicles.ConclusionsThe WTW methodology used in policy support to quantify energy content and GHG emissions of fuels and powertrains can produce results closer to the LCA methodology by adopting a hybrid WTW+LCA approach. While evaluating GHG savings due to the use of BEVs, it is important that this method considers the GWP due to the manufacturing of the battery pack.

Evaluating automobile fuel/propulsion system technologies

Based on the localized data of environmental load, this study has establishedthe life cycle assessment (LCA) model of battery electric passenger vehicle(BEPV) that be produced and used in China, and has evaluated the energyconsumption and greenhouse gases (GHGs) emission during vehicle pro-duction and operation. The results show that the total energy consumptionand GHG emissions are 438GJ and 37,100kg (in terms of CO2 equivalent)respectively. The share of GHG emissions in total emissions at the productionstage is 24.6%, and 75.4% GHG emissions are contributed by the operationalstage. The main source of energy consumption and GHG emissions at vehicleproduction stage is the extraction and processing of raw materials. TheGHG emissions of raw materials production accounts for 75.0% in the GHGemissions of vehicle production and 18.0% in the GHG emissions of fulllife cycle. The scenario analysis shows that the application of recyclablematerials, power grid GHG emission rates and vehicle energy consumption rates have significant influence on the carbon emissions in the life cycle ofvehicle. Replacing primary metals with recycled metals can reduce GHGemissions of vehicle production by about 7.3%, and total GHG emissionscan be reduced by about 1.8%. For every 1% decrease in GHG emissionsper unit of electricity, the GHG emissions of operation stage will decrease byabout 0.9%; for every 1.0% decrease in vehicle energy consumption rate, thetotal GHG emissions decrease by about 0.8%. Therefore, developing cleanenergy, reducing the proportion of coal power, optimizing the productionof raw materials and increasing the application of recyclable materials areeffective ways to improve the environmental performance of BEPV.

Oil consumption and import of China increase very quickly in recent years. Because of vehicle population growing in a tremendous speed, nearly 40% of oil has already used in transportation sector in today's China. Many kinds of alternative fuel vehicles are introduced, demonstrated and used in cities to reduce the traditional gasoline and diesel not only to reduce the regulated emissions, but also to improve the oil security of China. When the Kyoto Protocol became effective in last year, Chinese government and experts began to focus on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of alternative vehicle fuels. In order to comprehensively evaluating energy and global warming impact lead by production and utilization of alternative vehicle fuels in China, Well-to-Wheel analysis is used in this paper to quantitatively calculate energy use and GHG emissions of recovery, production, transportation and distribution, and end-use of compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), ethanol, methanol, dimethyl ether (DME) and Fischer-Tropsch diesel (FTD). The feedstock of ethanol includes corn and wheat. The energy use and GHG emissions of alternative vehicle fuels are compared with traditional gasoline and diesel. The results show that CNG and LPG is good choice from energy saving and GHG reduction in China. NG-based and coal-based methanol, DME and F-T diesel have lower lifecycle petroleum consumption than traditional gasoline and diesel, so that they may be an answer to Chinese oil security. The lifecycle total energy use, fossil energy use and GHG emissions of NG-based synthesized fuels are lower than coal-based fuels, but obviously higher than traditional gasoline and diesel, so that utilization of them will lead to potential pressure to China GHG reduction responsibility. The GHG emissions performance of China ethanol fuel is not as good as U.S. ethanol. The main reason is abuse of agriculture chemical in corn farming, especial the nitrogenous fertilizer, which is caused great N20 emission

In this paper, we used the life-cycle analysis (LCA) method to evaluate the energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of natural gas (NG) distributed generation (DG) projects in China. We took the China Resources Snow Breweries (CRSB) NG DG project in Sichuan province of China as a base scenario and compared its life cycle energy consumption and GHG emissions performance against five further scenarios. We found the CRSB DG project (all energy input is NG) can reduce GHG emissions by 22%, but increase energy consumption by 12% relative to the scenario, using coal combined with grid electricity as an energy input. The LCA also indicated that the CRSB project can save 24% of energy and reduce GHG emissions by 48% relative to the all-coal scenario. The studied NG-based DG project presents major GHG emissions reduction advantages over the traditional centralized energy system. Moreover, this reduction of energy consumption and GHG emissions can be expanded if the extra electricity from the DG project can be supplied to the public grid. The action of combining renewable energy into the NG DG system can also strengthen the dual merit of energy conservation and GHG emissions reduction. The marginal CO2 abatement cost of the studied project is about 51 USD/ton CO2 equivalent, which is relatively low. Policymakers are recommended to support NG DG technology development and application in China and globally to boost NG utilization and control GHG emissions.

With the increasingly prominent environmental problems and the decline of fossil fuel reserves, the reduction of energy consumption (EC) has become a common goal in the world. Urea industry is a typical energy-intensive chemical industry. However, studies just focus on the breakthrough of specific production technology or only consider the EC in the production stage. This results in a lack of evaluations of the life cycle of energy consumption (LcEC). In order to provide a systematic, scientific, and practical theoretical basis for the industrial upgrading and the energy transformation, LcEC of urea production and the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated in the process of EC are studied in this paper. The results show that the average LcEC is about 30.1 GJ/t urea. The EC of the materials preparation stage, synthesis stage, and waste-treatment stage (ECRMP, ECPP, ECWD) is about 0.388 GJ/t urea, 24.8 GJ/t urea, and 4.92 GJ/t urea, accounting for 1.3%, 82.4%, and 16.3% of LcEC, respectively. Thus, the synthesis stage is a dominant energy-consumer, in which 15.4 GJ/t urea of energy, accounting for 62.0% of ECpp, supports steam consumption. According to the energy distribution analysis, it can be concluded that coal presents the primary energy in the process of urea production, which supports 94.4% of LcEC. The proportion of coal consumption is significantly higher than that of the average of 59% in China. Besides, the GHG emissions in the synthesis stage are obviously larger than that in the other stage, with an average of 2.18 t eq.CO2/t urea, accounting for 81.3% of the life cycle of GHG (LcGHG) emissions. In detail, CO2 is the dominant factor accounting for 90.0% of LcGHG emissions, followed by CH4, while N2O is negligible. Coal is the primary source of CO2 emissions. The severe high proportion of coal consumption in the life cycle of urea production is responsible for this high CO2 content of GHG emissions. Therefore, for industrial urea upgrading and energy transformation, reducing coal consumption will still be an important task for energy structure transformation. At the same time, the reformation of synthesis technologies, especially for steam energy-consuming technology, will mainly reduce the EC of the urea industry. Furthermore, the application of green energy will be conducive to a win-win situation for both economic and environmental benefits.

BackgroundOne of the most problems in developing countries is the integrated waste management and the effects on Greenhouse Gases (GHG) emission, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is used in this paper as a decision supporting tool in planning Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) managements.MethodsIn this paper the EPA’s Waste Reduction Model (WARM) that provide GHG emission factors for waste stream components that are based on life Cycle Inventory (LCI) framework were used and The MSW management methods comprised in seven scenarios.ResultsThe amount of GHG which was generated from Iran’s waste sector estimated about 17836079 Metric Tons of Carbon dioxide Equivalents (MT CO2e) in this study. The lowest amount of GHG was generated by LFG capture system with energy recovery (557635 MT CO2e), while Incineration of materials being sent to landfill (1756823 MT CO2e), Landfill Gas (LFG) capture system with flaring (2929150 MT CO2e) and Improved source reduction and recycling (4780278 MT CO2e) emitted fewer GHG than the other scenarios. Lowest levels of gross energy consumption occur in source reduction with recycling and composting (-89356240 Mega British Thermal Unit, M BTU), recycling and composting (-86772060 M BTU) as well as Improved source reduction with recycling and composting (-54794888 M BTU).ConclusionsIt appears that recycling and composting each offer significant GHG emissions and energy consumption reductions (scenarios 4, 5 and 6). Upon of the GHG emission and energy consumption results concluded that improved source reduction and recycling scenario has been the Balanced and appropriate technology for handling the solid waste streams in municipalities.

Life-cycle assessment of alternative liquid fuels production in China

Potential for reducing GHG emissions and energy consumption from implementing the aluminum intensive vehicle fleet in China