Theoretical analysis of the cumulative costs of different diesel bus alternatives for a public transport in the city of Belgrade

Abstract

This paper includes comparative analysis of the environmental, energetic, and financial costs of different bus propulsion, possibly applied on the public transport in the city of Belgrade. It considers the modern diesel bus, the trolleybus, the natural gas bus with the spark ignition engine, the electric bus using LiFePO4 battery, and the electric bus with ultra-capacitor. The results are presented according to the real data and the real electro-energetic situation in Serbia, with the dominantly used lignite coal as primary fuel. This model gives the exact exhaust emission of electric vehicles at the thermal power plant, enables its comparison to the internal combustion engine vehicles. The result in analysis shows that the natural gas bus is the most cost efficient in economical way with overall exploitation price of $87 per 100 km. The trolleybus is more economical then the natural gas powered bus only at high departures rate, higher than 230 per workday.