Air Emission Reduction Opportunities for California's Trucking Sector by 2020 and 2050

California is the largest consumer of transportation fuels in the United States. An increasing fraction of these fuels (25% - 29%) are dedicated to powering heavy-duty trucks, which has significant effects to both air quality and the climate. Current technologies aiming at reducing emissions focus primarily on improved fuel efficiency. However, massive transformations to our current fuel technologies will be needed in order to meet California long-term air emissions goals. Alternately fueled vehicles (AFV) will have to play an important role in mitigating the environmental burdens associated with California heavy-duty freight trucking sector. The project will conduct a study that will create a complete inventory of greenhouse gas and criteria air emissions attributed to heavy-duty trucks using life-cycle assessment models. The fuels analyzed will be natural gas, biodiesel, ethanol, and oil sands as a new source of fossil fuels. Current environmental inventories focus on tailpipe emissions, excluding key components of a truck life cycle: fuel production, manufacturing, and maintenance. The project will provide life-cycle emission factors for California future AFVs. With these emission factors, the project will create emission scenarios that compare business-as-usual performance with near-term efficiency-focused strategies and accelerated AFV deployment in the context of meeting California 2020 and 2050 climate and air quality goals.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $78716
• Contract Numbers:

  DTRT12-G-UTC09

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Department of Transportation

  Office of the Secretary
  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Performing Organizations:

  University of California, Berkeley

  Transportation Center
  2614 Dwight Way, 2nd Floor
  Berkely, CA  United States  94720-1782
• Principal Investigators:

  Horvath, Arpad

• Start Date: 20120801
• Expected Completion Date: 20141231
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• Source Data: RiP Project 33489

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alternate fuels; Biodiesel fuels; Fossil fuels; Life cycle analysis; Natural gas; Pollutants; Trucking
• Uncontrolled Terms: Fuel efficiency
• Geographic Terms: California
• Subject Areas: Energy; Highways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01471043
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: University of California Transportation Center
• Contract Numbers: DTRT12-G-UTC09
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Jan 31 2013 1:01AM