TITLE:
Life-Cycle Analysis of Bio-Ethanol Fuel Emissions of Transportation Vehicles in Greater Houston Area
AUTHORS:
Raghava Kommalapati, Shahzeb Sheikh, Hongbo Du, Ziaul Huque
KEYWORDS:
Life Cycle Assessment, Bio-Ethanol, Greenhouse Gases Emissions, Pollutant Emissions
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Environmental Protection,
Vol.7 No.6,
May
11,
2016
ABSTRACT: Study is
conducted on the life cycle assessment of bio-ethanol used for transportation
vehicles and their emissions. The emissions that are analyzed include
greenhouse gases, volatile organic compounds, sulfur oxide, carbon monoxide,
nitrous oxide, particulate matter with the size less than 10 and 2.5 microns.
Furthermore, various blends of bio-ethanol and gasoline are studied to learn
about the impacts of higher blend on emissions. The Greenhouse Gases, Regulated
Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation (GREET) model software are used to
simulate for emissions. The research analyzes two pathways of emissions:
Well-to-Pump and Pump-to-Vehicle analyses. It is found that the fuel cell
vehicles using 100% bio-ethanol have shown the most reduction in the amount of
all the pollutants from the Pump-to-Vehicle emission analysis. The Well-to-Pump
analysis shows that only greenhouse gases (GHGs) reduce with higher blends of
bio-ethanol. All other pollutants VOC, CO, NOx, SOx, PM10 and PM2.5 emissions
increase with the higher blending ratios. The Pump-to-Vehicle analysis shows
that all the pollutant emissions reduce with the percentage increase of
bio-ethanol in the fuel blends.