Modelling of Emissions and Energy Use from Biofuel Fuelled Vehicles at Urban Scale
Open accessAbstract
Biofuels have been considered to be sustainable energy source and one of the major alternatives to petroleum-based road transport fuels due to a reduction of greenhouse gases emissions. However, their effects on urban air pollution are not straightforward. The main objective of this work is to estimate the emissions and energy use from bio-fuelled vehicles by using an integrated and flexible modelling approach at the urban scale in order to contribute to the understanding of introducing biofuels as an alternative transport fuel. For this purpose, the new Traffic Emission and Energy Consumption Model (QTraffic) was applied for complex urban road network when considering two biofuels demand scenarios with different blends of bioethanol and biodiesel in comparison to the reference situation over the city of Coimbra (Portugal). The results of this study indicate that the increase of biofuels blends would have a beneficial effect on particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions reduction for the entire road network (−3.1% [−3.8% to −2.1%] by kg). In contrast, an overall negative effect on nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions at urban scale is expected, mainly due to the increase in bioethanol uptake. Moreover, the results indicate that, while there is no noticeable variation observed in energy use, fuel consumption is increased by over 2.4% due to the introduction of the selected biofuels blends.
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The increased use of biodiesel and ethanol blends in vehicle engines causes a reduction in PM, CO and unburned VOC emissions than traditional fuels.
“Biofuels tend to burn cleaner, the increased use of biodiesel and ethanol blends in vehicle engines, causes a reduction in PM, CO and unburned VOC emissions than traditional fuels [53,54,71,72].”
From Investigation of Biofuel as a Potential Renewable Energy Source (2021) · cites this paper as [54]
The majority of the literature demonstrates that there is an unfavourable increase in NOx emissions when using biofuels as opposed to fossil fuels.
“Additionally, despite the favourable reduction in PM, CO and VOC emissions, the majority of the literature demonstrates that there is an unfavourable increase in NO x emissions when using biofuels as opposed to fossil fuels [39,53,54].”
From Investigation of Biofuel as a Potential Renewable Energy Source (2021) · cites this paper as [54]
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Biofuel production: exploring renewable energy solutions for a greener future
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Investigation of Biofuel as a Potential Renewable Energy Source
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- Authors
- Dias, D., Antunes, A. P., & Tchepel, O.
- Affiliations
- Centro de Investigação do Território Transportes e Ambiente (PT)
- Corresponding author
- Tchepel, Oxana
- Venue
- Sustainability
- Publisher
- MDPI AG
- Published
- 2019-05-22
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 10
- Pages
- 2902
- ISSN
- 2071-1050 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2946762258
- Cited by
- 23
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2
- FWCI
- 1.37
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- dx.doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Sustainability (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Funders
- Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (PTDC/ECM-URB/3329/2014, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-016729)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Automotive Engineering › Vehicle emissions and performance
- Physical Sciences › Energy › Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment › Energy, Environment, and Transportation Policies
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Automotive Engineering › Engine and Fuel Emissions
- Keywords
- biofuels, urban air pollution, vehicle emissions, energy consumption, bioethanol, biodiesel, biofuel blends, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides, road transport, Coimbra
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