Abstract

Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) of alternative transportation fuels clearly shows the advantages of reducing the use of nonrenewable fossil fuels vs. renewable synthetic and biologic novel fuels to reduce the emissions of carbon dioxide. Being based on the natural or synthetic recycle of carbon dioxide through the use of renewable energy sources, use of these renewable fuels does not imply depletion of natural resources and is therefore sustainable in the long term. Renewable fuels and advanced internal combustion engines and powertrains are the technologies that in addition to be the most likely to produce benefits in term of carbon balance and fossil fuel saving, are also those that unequivocally have the smallest ecological footprint considering all the environmental implication of transportation technologies. All the other more exotic solutions having much higher environmental costs to produce, use and dispose of alternative transportation technologies. Use of bio ethanol from nonfood feed stocks in high power density, turbocharged and directly injected spark ignition engines also adopting variable valve actuation for throttle less load control and adoption of kinetic energy recovery systems may cut the fossil fuel usage as well as the carbon dioxide emissions by more than 90%. Copyright © 2011 SAE International.

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

2688-3627; 0148-7191

Document Type

Article - Conference proceedings

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2024 SAE International, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Jan 2011

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