Which evolution and technological solutions for sustainable land transport systems / Quale evoluzione e soluzioni tecnologiche per i trasporti terrestri sostenibili

Starting from a glimpse on how mobility and traffic have been evolving in the recent decades, namely in Europe, also with a comparison with motionless communications, the paper shifts the attention on what do mobility and logistics require today, in terms of general trends. In order to try to answer properly to this question, the constraints on transport systems in this 1st half of XXI century are resumed, as far as sustainability is concerned. From such a comprehensive perspective, it is possible to infer the expected solutions for mobility and logistics within urban contexts as well as for extra-urban transport systems. The conclusions summarise the technological evolutions that can be expected according to the premises, which are therefore compliant with the current and expected environmental constraints and goals

Possible solutions for a transport system compliant with the energy supply and the environment: measurable analyses

The development of the circulating fleet, infrastructures and personal mobility, which have significantly marked the second half of the last century in Europe, show today some conditioning: saturation of the land, limitedness of the energy resource, release within the environment of gases and combustible materials, maintenance of the existing infrastructures, safety, relationships among people. The proposed presentation gathers and synthesizes, at first, a general framing on the role and impact of the transport systems in the general energy consumption and the consequent emissions. These elements are essential for a clearer understanding of where and how much energy efficiency can impact the different transport modes and provide the ground for some general considerations on the energy demand in the transport systems. A perspective on consequent engines and motor vehicles is provided thereafter. Secondly, the presentation proposes some solutions, motivated and based on the WTW (well-to-wheel) analysis and data, that can be prospected in the present changing economy, including some main proposals concerning energy production in urban contexts, as an alternative to oil import, and the consequent most proper propulsion or traction for motor vehicles. A reference is made also to the Directive 2009/33/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the promotion of clean and energy-efficient road transport vehicles and related alternative fuel

The evolution of transport systems and related energy use in Europe, India and the world: new needs, migration towards "ITS" through telematics and a technological overview of ITS

Congress "EBTC Transport Flagship Mission to India" - Delhi, 201

Transport and energy in India. Energy used by Indian transport systems and consequent emissions: the need for quantitative analyses (Well-to-Wheel, Lifecycle)

The purpose of this work is, at first, a general overview on the state-of-art of the transportation system in India outlining the related energy consumption, for the different transport modes, with consequent estimated emissions. These elements are essential for the preparation of a high-level strategic transport planning on the whole energy issue, to help India in the choices of most suitable transportation systems, according to the well-to-wheel analysis (WTW). Pursuing a WTW global index for India that takes into account both the energy and environmental aspects on a uniform basis is an important aim: it allows the best choices to be made as well as enabling the comparison between some of the most important powertrain and fuel options on the Indian market, the results are discussed from three different points of view: energy, environmental and economic impac

Entanglement as a semantic resource

The characteristic holistic features of the quantum theoretic formalism and the intriguing notion of entanglement can be applied to a field that is far from microphysics: logical semantics. Quantum computational logics are new forms of quantum logic that have been suggested by the theory of quantum logical gates in quantum computation. In the standard semantics of these logics, sentences denote quantum information quantities: systems of qubits (quregisters) or, more generally, mixtures of quregisters (qumixes), while logical connectives are interpreted as special quantum logical gates (which have a characteristic reversible and dynamic behavior). In this framework, states of knowledge may be entangled, in such a way that our information about the whole determines our information about the parts; and the procedure cannot be, generally, inverted. In spite of its appealing properties, the standard version of the quantum computational semantics is strongly "Hilbert-space dependent". This certainly represents a shortcoming for all applications, where real and complex numbers do not generally play any significant role (as happens, for instance, in the case of natural and of artistic languages). We propose an abstract version of quantum computational semantics, where abstract qumixes, quregisters and registers are identified with some special objects (not necessarily living in a Hilbert space), while gates are reversible functions that transform qumixes into qumixes. In this framework, one can give an abstract definition of the notions of superposition and of entangled pieces of information, quite independently of any numerical values. We investigate three different forms of abstract holistic quantum computational logic

Range of technical-economic competitiveness of rail-road combined transport

Abstract Purpose Road haulage has been the most widely used mode of freight transport in many European countries for several decades. Given the attention to sustainable transport in this century, the rail-road combined transport may result to be a good alternative, under specific conditions, to road haulage. This paper analyses the main conditions to make the option competitive, using a simplified method useful for the stakeholders involved in decision processes. Method Relevant cost items have been identified since previous studies available in literature. The proposed formulas consider the different phases of transport chain and have been used to investigate such parameters as the external costs and the location of terminals. Results If the pre- and post-phases are too long or simply too onerous, the economic advantages of the rail section may not be sufficient to guarantee the convenience of the combined transport. It can be economically competitive over long distances, even when the drayage covers greater distances. Conclusions The method has been used to examine those situations, in terms of distance covered and frequency of the service, in which rail-road combined transport can be cost-effective as an alternative to the full-road solution. The obtained range can be reviewed based on the services, such as shuttle trains to connect seaports with dry ports: the short distance covered may be more convenient due to the high quantities of goods as well as the fixed train composition and path allocation, which means lower terminal cost and times. Finally, some innovative proposals have been introduced

Sustainable transport systems: trends on needs, constraints, solutions

In this historical moment, technology can guarantee transport systems some good solutions which seems to be quite in line with actual needs, by improving efficiency of engines (ICEs) or of travels or even rationalizing the consumption of related activities by using ITS (Intelligent Transport Systems) and by developing systems which can be sustainable through their whole life-cycle (LCC). Main results of the paper can be synthesised in pursuing the independence from the main source transport systems are based on, which is a nearly-monopoly, and use of lower unitary energy in motorised mobility in order to reduce the fuel consumption per person or per ton and – consequently – the emissions. This aim can be pursued either through higher capacity transport modes (e.g. trains, metros and automated people movers), yet guaranteeing as far as possible vehicles loaded more than their break-even in energy, or with a low level of black-oil energy used for vehicles: e.g., FEV, PHEV, natural gas for heavy-duty vehicles. The WTW analysis synthesises most of this idea