Abstract
Houston, the fourth largest metropolis in the US, currently experiences severe air pollution. Major pollutants, such as VOCs, CO, NOx, PM, SOx, CH4, and CO2, are released from the transportation fleets. To decrease fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions from fleet vehicles, more and more biodiesel is used in vehicles in the Houston metropolis. The GREET model was used for simulating the fuel cycle emissions of diesel vehicles using different biodiesel blends in Houston. The fuels examined were diesel-biodiesel blends of B0, B5, B20, B50, B80, and B100. The energy and water use and emissions from vehicles fueled with the blends were investigated. The study shows that the reductions in GHG emissions are significant at the Well-to-Pump stage, and all the emissions, except GHGs and NOx, reduce at the Pump-to-Wheel stage. The overall Well-to-Wheel analysis shows that biodiesel is beneficial for both passenger cars and heavy duty trucks. However, the benefits are more pronounced for passenger cars compared to heavy duty vehicles. When 50% of diesel passenger cars and HDDTs are switched to B20 in the Greater Houston area in 2025, the daily GHG emissions will be reduced by 2.0 and 712.1 CO2-equivalent tonnes, respectively.
Highlights
Dependence on imported crude oil and concerns of global climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are increasingly impacting the national security strategy and economic and environmental plans of many countries
Our study shows that the energy use and emission trends for the long-haul heavy duty diesel trucks (HDDTs) are almost the same as those for passenger cars
The life cycle energy and water use and emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs), VOCs, CO, NOx, SOx, PM10, and PM2.5 for biodiesel blends with regular diesel were studied in Houston by using passenger cars and long-haul HDDTs with the GREET model
Summary
Dependence on imported crude oil and concerns of global climate change due to greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are increasingly impacting the national security strategy and economic and environmental plans of many countries. With the increase in the world population, the demand for transportation vehicles is increasing, which leads to the increased use of fossil fuels. Transportation fleets using fossil fuels release a large amount of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and other harmful air pollutants, which prove being hazardous to the environment and human health. The study of global energy consumption trends showed that CO emissions from fossil fuel-driven vehicles contribute to more than 70% of the total emissions from all the sources, and the corresponding CO2 emissions contribute to 19% [3]. As the fossil fuels are exhausted every day, there is a great need to find alternative fuels to satisfy the energy demand of the world and reduce the GHGs and pollutant emissions
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