The energy consumption of passenger vehicles in a transformed mobility system with autonomous, shared and fit-for-purpose electric vehicles in the Netherlands

Aims: This article explores the tank-to-wheel energy consumption of passenger transport at full adoption of fit-for-purpose shared and autonomous electric vehicles. Background: The energy consumption of passenger transport is increasing every year. Electrification of vehicles reduces their energy consumption significantly but is not the only disruptive trend in mobility. Shared fleets and autonomous driving are also expected to have large impacts and lead to fleets with one-person fit-for-purpose vehicles. The energy consumption of passenger transport in such scenarios is rarely discussed and we have not yet seen attempts to quantify it. Objective: The objective of this study is to quantify the tank-to-wheel energy consumption of passenger transport when the vehicle fleet is comprised of shared autonomous and electric fit-for-purpose vehicles and where cheap and accessible mobility leads to significantly increased mobility demand. Methodology: The approach consists of four steps. First, describing the key characteristics of a future mobility system with fit-for-purpose shared autonomous electric vehicles. Second, estimating the vehicle miles traveled in such a scenario. Third, estimating the energy use of the fit-for-purpose vehicles. And last, multiplying the mileages and energy consumptions of the vehicles and scaling the results with the population of the Netherlands. Results: Our findings show that the daily tank-to-wheel energy consumption from Dutch passenger transport in full adoption scenarios of shared autonomous electric vehicles ranges from 700 Wh to 2200 Wh per capita. This implies a reduction of 90% to 70% compared to the current situation. Conclusion: Full adoption of shared autonomous electric vehicles could increase the vehicle-miles-travelled and thus energy use of passenger transport by 30% to 150%. Electrification of vehicles reduces energy consumption by 75%. Autonomous driving has the potential of reducing the energy consumption by up to 40% and implementing one-person fit-for-purpose vehicles by another 50% to 60%. For our case study of the Netherlands, this means that the current 600 TJ/day that is consumed by passenger vehicles will be reduced to about 50 to 150 TJ/day at full adoption of SAEVs.</p

Quantifying the Fleet Composition at Full Adoption of Shared Autonomous Electric Vehicles:An Agent-based Approach

Aims: Exploring the impact of full adoption of fit-for-demand shared and autonomous electric vehicles on the passenger vehicle fleet of a society. Background: Shared Eutonomous Electric Vehicles (SAEVs) are expected to have a disruptive impact on the mobility sector. Reduced cost for mobility and increased accessibility will induce new mobility demand and the vehicles that provide it will be fit-for-demand vehicles. Both these aspects have been qualitatively covered in recent research, but there have not yet been attempts to quantify fleet compositions in scenarios where passenger transport is dominated by fit-for-demand, one-person autonomous vehicles. Objective: To quantify the composition of the future vehicle fleet when all passenger vehicles are autonomous, shared and fit-for-demand and where cheap and accessible mobility has significantly increased the mobility demand. Methods: An agent-based model is developed to model detailed travel dynamics of a large population. Numerical data is used to mimic actual driving motions in the Netherlands. Next, passenger vehicle trips are changed to trips with fit-for-demand vehicles, and new mobility demand is added in the form of longer tips, more frequent trips, modal shifts from public transport, redistribution of shared vehicles, and new user groups. Two scenarios are defined for the induced mobility demand from SAEVs, one scenario with limited increased mobility demand, and one scenario with more than double the current mobility demand. Three categories of fit-for-demand vehicles are stochastically mapped to all vehicle trips based on each trip's characteristics. The vehicle categories contain two one-person vehicle types and one multi-person vehicle type. Results: The simulations show that at full adoption of SAEVs, the maximum daily number of passenger vehicles on the road increases by 60% to 180%. However, the total fleet size could shrink by up to 90% if the increase in mobility demand is limited. An 80% reduction in fleet size is possible at more than doubling the current mobility demand. Additionally, about three-quarters of the SAEVs can be small one-person vehicles. Conclusion: Full adoption of fit-for-demand SAEVs is expected to induce new mobility demand. However, the results of this research indicate that there would be 80% to 90% less vehicles required in such a situation, and the vast majority would be one-person vehicles. Such vehicles are less resource-intense and, because of their size and electric drivetrains, are significantly more energy-efficient than the average current-day vehicle. This research indicates the massive potential of SAEVs to lower both the cost and the environmental impact of the mobility sector. Quantification of these environmental benefits and reduced mobility costs are proposed for further research.</p

Sociaal-economische gevolgen van een totaal verbod van pulsvisserij voor de Nederlandse visserijsector

Deze nota beschrijft de omvang van de pulsvisserij in Nederland, en de sociaal-economische gevolgen wanneer de Nederlandse pulskotters moeten omschakelen naar de boomkorvisserij. De pulsvloot is voor de Nederlandse visserij van groot belang. Als alle pulskotters omschakelen naar boomkor resulteert dat in een forse verlaging van het economisch rendement. Bij lagere schol- en tongprijzen en hogere brandstofprijzen, vergelijkbaar met die in de periode 2012-2014, zou het gemiddelde nettoresultaat nihil zijn. In deze situatie zal de helft van de kotters zelfs een negatief resultaat behalen. Deze afname van de financiële resultaten heeft de volgende effecten op de economie van de visserij: door de negatieve resultaten zal de continuïteit van bedrijven in het geding komen, door de lage deellonen zal het moeilijk zijn gekwalificeerde bemanning aan boord te krijgen, door de afname van het financiële resultaat zal er minder of geen ruimte meer zijn voor vervanging en vernieuwin

The sequence to hydrogenate coronene cations:A journey guided by magic numbers

The understanding of hydrogen attachment to carbonaceous surfaces is essential to a wide variety of research fields and technologies such as hydrogen storage for transportation, precise localization of hydrogen in electronic devices and the formation of cosmic H2. For coronene cations as prototypical Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules, the existence of magic numbers upon hydrogenation was uncovered experimentally. Quantum chemistry calculations show that hydrogenation follows a site-specific sequence leading to the appearance of cations having 5, 11, or 17 hydrogen atoms attached, exactly the magic numbers found in the experiments. For these closed-shell cations, further hydrogenation requires appreciable structural changes associated with a high transition barrier. Controlling specific hydrogenation pathways would provide the possibility to tune the location of hydrogen attachment and the stability of the system. The sequence to hydrogenate PAHs, leading to PAHs with magic numbers of H atoms attached, provides clues to understand that carbon in space is mostly aromatic and partially aliphatic in PAHs. PAH hydrogenation is fundamental to assess the contribution of PAHs to the formation of cosmic H2.</p

Liver Progenitor Cell Line HepaRG Differentiated in a Bioartificial Liver Effectively Supplies Liver Support to Rats with Acute Liver Failure

A major roadblock to the application of bioartificial livers is the need for a human liver cell line that displays a high and broad level of hepatic functionality. The human bipotent liver progenitor cell line HepaRG is a promising candidate in this respect, for its potential to differentiate into hepatocytes and bile duct cells. Metabolism and synthesis of HepaRG monolayer cultures is relatively high and their drug metabolism can be enhanced upon treatment with 2% dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO). However, their potential for bioartificial liver application has not been assessed so far. Therefore, HepaRG cells were cultured in the Academic Medical Center bioartificial liver (AMC-BAL) with and without DMSO and assessed for their hepatic functionality in vitro and in a rat model of acute liver failure. HepaRG-AMC-BALs cultured without DMSO eliminated ammonia and lactate, and produced apolipoprotein A-1 at rates comparable to freshly isolated hepatocytes. Cytochrome P450 3A4 transcript levels and activity were high with 88% and 37%, respectively, of the level of hepatocytes. DMSO treatment of HepaRG-AMC-BALs reduced the cell population and the abovementioned functions drastically. Therefore, solely HepaRG-AMC-BALs cultured without DMSO were tested for efficacy in rats with acute liver failure (n = 6). HepaRG-AMC-BAL treatment increased survival time of acute liver failure rats ∼50% compared to acellular-BAL treatment. Moreover, HepaRG-AMC-BAL treatment decreased the progression of hepatic encephalopathy, kidney failure, and ammonia accumulation. These results demonstrate that the HepaRG-AMC-BAL is a promising bioartificial liver for clinical application