What is the Real-World CO2 Reduction Benefit of the 95g/km Passenger Car Average Emission Target to be Reached by 2020?

AbstractRoad transport is responsible for roughly 20% of total Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in Europe with passenger cars being a significant fraction. To control this, emission limits for CO2 have been set, with the target is to reach 130g/km of CO2 as an average for all new passenger cars in 2015. The medium-term target is to reach 95g/km average in 2020. These average values refer to CO2 emission over the New European Driving Cycle (NEDC). This cycle has been recently considered to be misrepresenting actual driving conditions. Hence, a vehicle may emit significantly higher CO2 emissions in real-world than it does over the NEDC. This paper aims at quantifying the impact in real-world CO2 emissions by selecting different technology pathways to reach the 95g/km target. Along with a basecase scenario considering, three alternative scenarios were examined. The first scenario considers downsizing to smaller and more efficient diesel and gasoline cars. The second one assumes that hybrids will be the prime technology for emission reduction. The third scenario assumes that electrification will be the main technology pathway. The 95g/km target is reached in all scenarios. Results show that despite the statutory target is fixed, actual reductions over the basecase scenario differ. Electrification, downsizing, and hybridization scenarios achieve 3%, 4,1%, and 11% CO2 reductions over the basecase new registrations in 2020, respectively. The average CO2 emission factor in the same order is 117, 116 and 108g/km. These results show that actual CO2 reductions to be reached not only depend on the average CO2 value agreed but also on the technology pathway selected. Conclusions were obtained under certain boundary conditions and by studying a limited suite of scenarios and technology pathways. However, our intention has been to demonstrate that real-world performance differs than statutory targets by offering a few examples. Such an approach, when further developed and adjusted to national circumstances, may be used to inform policy regarding the expected benefits of vehicle GHG regulation in view of wider targets, such as the 20-20-20 initiative

Investigation study for technological application of alternative methods for the energy exploitation of biomass/agricultural residues in Northern Greece

Biomass energy potential is addressed to be the most promising among the renewable energy sources, due to its spread and availability worldwide. Apart form that, biomass has the unique advantage among the rest of renewable energy sources, to be able to provide solid, liquid, and gaseous fuels that can be stored, transported, and utilized, far a way from the point of origin. For the northern region of Macedonia in Greece, biomass utilization is considered to be a major issue, due to the considerably intensive regional agricultural activities. Wood by-products, fruit cores, rice husk and cotton gin waste provide a promising energy source for the region. The energy potential of the available agricultural biomass produced in the region is much enough to cover the 10% of the annual oil consumption utilized for thermal applications. However, the cost of energy utilization of biomass is considerably high due to the high cost of the logistics concerning the collection, transport, and storage of biomass. The available utilization technologies developed, to handle efficiently all different species of biomass, cover a wide technological range. One of the most promising technologies involving thermal treatment of biomass and the production of a gaseous fuel (biogas) for industrial heat applications and electricity production, is the thermochemical conversion. In the present work, an investigation concerning biomass potential for energy production in the region of central Macedonia in Greece, utilizing several locally produced biomass species, is conducted. Emphasis is put on the energy utilization of agricultural by-products and residues. Agricultural sector is of greal importance due to the considerably intensive agricultural activities in the region of Central Macedonia

Development of a methodology and tool to evaluate the impact of ICT measures on road transport emissions

The paper presents the main elements of a project entitled ICT-Emissions that aims at developing a novel methodology to evaluate the impact of ICT-related measures on mobility, vehicle energy consumption and CO2 emissions of vehicle fleets at the local scale, in order to promote the wider application of the most appropriate ICT measures. The proposed methodology combines traffic and emission modelling at micro and macro scales. These will be linked with interfaces and submodules which will be specifically designed and developed. A number of sources are available to the consortium to obtain the necessary input data. Also, experimental campaigns are offered to fill in gaps of information in traffic and emission patterns. The application of the methodology will be demonstrated using commercially available software. However, the methodology is developed in such a way as to enable its implementation by a variety of emission and traffic models. Particular emphasis is given to (a) the correct estimation of driver behaviour, as a result of traffic-related ICT measures, (b) the coverage of a large number of current vehicle technologies, including ICT systems, and (c) near future technologies such as hybrid, plug-in hybrids, and electric vehicles. The innovative combination of traffic, driver, and emission models produces a versatile toolbox that can simulate the impact on energy and CO2 of infrastructure measures (traffic management, dynamic traffic signs, etc.), driver assistance systems and ecosolutions (speed/cruise control, start/stop systems, etc.) or a combination of measures (cooperative systems).The methodology is validated by application in the Turin area and its capacity is further demonstrated by application in real world conditions in Madrid and Rome

Quantification of the Effect of ITS on CO2 Emissions from Road Transportation

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Effect of Fuel Properties on Emissions from Euro 4 and Euro 5 Diesel Passenger Cars

Abstract The EN 590 specification allows up to 7% v/v FAME to be blended into conventional diesel fuel which can then be used in most light-duty diesel vehicles. It is anticipated that higher FAME levels may be needed in order to meet the 10% renewable energy target mandated by the Renewable Energy Directive (2009/EC/28). Certain diesel fuel specification properties are considered to be environmental parameters according to the European Fuels Quality Directive (FQD, 2009/EC/30) and previous regulations. These limits included in the EN 590 specification were derived from the European Programme on Emissions, Fuels and Engine Technologies (EPEFE) which was carried out in the 1990's on diesel vehicles meeting up to Euro 3 emissions standards. These limits could potentially constrain FAME blending levels higher than 7% v/v. No significant work has been conducted to investigate whether relaxing these limits would give rise to efficiency or emissions debits or benefits. For this reason, Concawe was interested in studying the impact of these parameters in Euro 4+ vehicle technology. A test programme has been conducted to evaluate the impact of specific diesel properties on emissions on a Euro 5 light-duty diesel vehicle. Tests were also carried out in a Euro 4 vehicle to provide comparison with previous work. Properties studied were Poly-Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) content, density, and cetane number. The Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) content was an additional variable in the study. Results of emissions testing will be presented and discussed including effects of the above fuel properties on particulates, NOx, CO2 and fuel consumption

A simulation model of the real-world fuel and energy consumption of light-duty vehicles

The European Union has intensified efforts to reduce CO2 emissions from the transport sector, with the target of reducing tailpipe CO2 emissions from light-duty vehicle new registrations by 55% by 2030 and achieving zero emissions by 2035 according to the “Fit for 55” package. To promote fuel and energy consumption awareness among users under real-world conditions the MILE21—LIFE project provided tools such as a self-reporting tool and a find-a-car tool that included the official and representative on-road fuel/energy consumption values. In order to produce representative values, an in-house vehicle longitudinal dynamics simulation model was developed for use in the background of the on-line platform utilizing only a limited amount of inputs. To achieve this, the applied methodology is based on precalculated efficiency values. These values have been produced using vehicle micro-model simulations covering a wide range of operating conditions. The model was validated using measurements from a dedicated testing campaign and performed well for petrol vehicles with an average divergence of −1.1%. However, the model showed a divergence of 9.7% for diesel vehicles, 10.6% for hybrids and 8.7% for plug-in hybrids. The model was also applied to US vehicles and showed a divergence of 1.2% and 10% for city and highway driving, respectively. The application of the developed model presented in this work showed that it is possible to predict real-world fuel and energy consumption with the desired accuracy using a simplified approach with limited input data

Evaluation of the performance of four chemical transport models in predicting the aerosol chemical composition in Europe in 2005

© Author(s) 2016.Four regional chemistry transport models were applied to simulate the concentration and composition of particulate matter (PM) in Europe for 2005 with horizontal resolution 20 km. The modelled concentrations were compared with the measurements of PM chemical composition by the European Monitoring and Evaluation Programme (EMEP) monitoring network. All models systematically underestimated PM10 and PM2:5 by 10–60 %, depending on the model and the season of the year, when the calculated dry PM mass was compared with the measurements. The average water content at laboratory conditions was estimated between 5 and 20% for PM2:5 and between 10 and 25% for PM10. For majority of the PM chemical components, the relative underestimation was smaller than it was for total PM, exceptions being the carbonaceous particles and mineral dust. Some species, such as sea salt and NO3, were overpredicted by the models. There were notable differences between the models’ predictions of the seasonal variations of PM, mainly attributable to different treatments or omission of some source categories and aerosol processes. Benzo(a)pyrene concentrations were overestimated by all the models over the whole year. The study stresses the importance of improving the models’ skill in simulating mineral dust and carbonaceous compounds, necessity for high-quality emissions from wildland fires, as well as the need for an explicit consideration of aerosol water content in model–measurement comparison.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Characterization of laboratory and real driving emissions of individual Euro 6 light-duty vehicles – Fresh particles and secondary aerosol formation

Emissions from passenger cars are one of major sources that deteriorate urban air quality. This study presents characterization of real-drive emissions from three Euro 6 emission level passenger cars (two gasoline and one diesel) in terms of fresh particles and secondary aerosol formation. The gasoline vehicles were also characterized by chassis dynamometer studies. In the real-drive study, the particle number emissions during regular driving were 1.1–12.7 times greater than observed in the laboratory tests (4.8 times greater on average), which may be caused by more effective nucleation process when diluted by real polluted and humid ambient air. However, the emission factors measured in laboratory were still much higher than the regulatory value of 6 × 10^(11) particles km^(−1). The higher emission factors measured here result probably from the fact that the regulatory limit considers only non-volatile particles larger than 23 nm, whereas here, all particles (also volatile) larger than 3 nm were measured. Secondary aerosol formation potential was the highest after a vehicle cold start when most of the secondary mass was organics. After the cold start, the relative contributions of ammonium, sulfate and nitrate increased. Using a novel approach to study secondary aerosol formation under real-drive conditions with the chase method resulted mostly in emission factors below detection limit, which was not in disagreement with the laboratory findings