Catálogo de publicaciones - libros

The paper describes an engineering–economic model of the transport sector in the European Union (EU). The model starts with a simulation of the economic behaviour of consumers and producers in order to calculate the modal split and allocate the vehicle stock into vintages. Then a technologyoriented algorithm calculates air pollutant and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The paper describes briefly the methodological approach, but its main focus is the presentation of results from scenarios that attempt to simulate sustainable transport policies. A major conclusion is that individual measures cannot address sufficiently the sustainability concerns. Therefore, policies combining technical and fiscal measures would be most appropriate.

The Spanish Ministry of Environment has launched forth into a project related to the evaluation of the environmental impacts of biodiesel production in Spain, in order to support its biofuels promotion policies. The objective of this project is to evaluate the environmental impacts of four different fuels composed by biodiesel from several crude vegetable oils and waste vegetable oils in comparison to diesel EN-590 along their whole life cycle, and to identify the opportunities to reduce the environmental impacts. Biodiesel is produced from sunflower oil, soybean oil, rapeseed oil, and palm oil, and also from waste vegetable oils. The transformation technology is that currently used in the Spanish biodiesel plants.

Ethanol has been used in Brazil as a passenger vehicle fuel since 1979. Until the year 2000, vehicles were made to run exclusively with either gasoline or ethanol. The MultiFuel engine control module (ECM) was developed allowing vehicles to use fuels with any ethanol percentage, relying only on the existing oxygen sensor as opposed to an add-on ethanol sensor for the percent ethanol evaluation. The use of tank fuel level information allowed for far more robust ethanol percent detection and improved drivability. Four years later, compressed natural gas (CNG) capability was integrated into the MultiFuel technology. Prior to that, vehicles using CNG normally required a second ECM. The MultiFuel integrated with CNG capability is known as the Tri-Fuel system. It uses only one ECM, seamlessly controlling both liquid (ethanol blends and gasoline) and CNG fuels with little power loss, and excellent drivability and fuel consumption. This paper will present both the MultiFuel and Tri-Fuel technologies.

This study summarizes most recent findings on the contribution of transport, especially road transport, to air pollution and emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) in Spain. The evaluation of the national emissions inventory and the calculation of vehicle emissions during the period 1990–2003, using the database developed by the Direction of Air Quality, Spanish Ministry of Environment, reflects a significant reduction of ozone precursors (–21.8%), acidifying substances (–7.4%), and particles (–2.2%). The economical growth (31%) and the transport demand growth, passengers (76%) and freight (49.9%), are coupled.

This study compares vehicle emissions with current pollution concentrations and analyses air quality relating it with the European relevant legislation. The concentrations are lower than the permissible values of pollutants fixed by the directives, except the particles.

The emissions of GHG have grown 47.1%, at a much higher rate than the 15% increment warned by the Kyoto Protocol and one of the most urgent present priorities is to reduce them. Even though the transport, which a passenger uses like road, rail, and air has improved its efficiency by 15%, 41%, and 50% respectively, additional measures are needed to reduce emissions and energy consumption. These measures require time to be effective.

This study explores the influence of gear-changing behaviour on vehicular exhaust emissions and fuel consumption using real drive cycles as an input. As many as 235 different drive cycles, recorded from people participating in a survey, were imported in an emission simulation tool called Vehicle Transient Emissions Simulation Software (VeTESS). Emissions and fuel consumption were calculated with VeTESS using two different gear change assumptions (normal and aggressive). This paper reports on the differences in vehicle exhaust emissions between trips made with those two different settings.

In many European countries the speed limit for trucks is under discussion or review. The speed limit for heavy trucks is 80 km h in most countries, but 90 km h in Belgium. We investigated the effect of reducing the speed limit on fuel consumption and emissions of CO, NO, and particulate matter (PM).

To ensure robust conclusions under a strict deadline, our evaluation used two existing, complementary approaches: the macroscopic emission model TEMAT and the microscopic emission simulation model VeTESS. Both models show a CO reduction between 5% and 15%. The results for NO and PM were ambiguous.

This study explores the relationship between the vehicle exhaust emissions caused by a trip and the characteristics of the driver involved. The hypothesis formulated is that certain “groups” of individuals produce more emissions (per kilometre) than others and therefore should be treated differently when aiming vehicle emission reduction. To support this hypothesis an activity- based (AB) survey collected speed profiles and driver characteristics of different car drivers. The speed profiles of the individual trips served as input for the emission model Vehicle Transient Emissions Simulation Software (VeTESS), to calculate the instantaneous emissions made by a single vehicle. This paper reports on the differences in vehicle exhaust emissions between trips made by men and women.

In its early stage, tracking devices were primarily used to locate stolen vehicles. However functionalities can be expanded very far. Built-in functions can be added and extra sensor signals can be added to the standard registrations. Especially, fleet management solutions are envisaged currently. With the use of intelligent transport systems, service companies can provide live traffic data, picked up from sensors that monitor vehicle speed, combined with incident reports. The tracking device can be in direct contact with a central server or can send regular reports and data.

Within the Floating Automotive Data Collection (FADC) project (carried out with the support of the European Union (EU)–Asia Information Technology and Communications (IT&C) Programme) experiments were done on the combination of a tracking device with automated traffic jam detection. On specific routes in Belgium and in India, speeds and acceleration profiles were monitored as a function of location, in order to automatically detect deviations from normal fluent traffic. The detection can be done on-board the vehicle and in case of traffic jam detection, the device will send a message to a central server, which maps different traffic jam detection massages. The system will of course operate optimal if a sufficient number of vehicles in the traffic are equipped with such device.

Madrid is suffering a rapid suburbanization process where population and jobs are moving out of the central city. This process produces an imbalanced mobility pattern and more car dependency. Car pressure is increasing as well as its negative environmental impacts. Pollutant emissions and noise exposure form one of the key problems in central areas.

To reverse the present situation, a number of actions were envisaged constituting a whole strategy to maintain current standards of mobility and to avoid its negative effects. This strategy endeavours to maintain the social and economic vitality of the urban centre, in a sustainable framework, in order to reduce externalities and to enhance citizen quality of life. It includes transport policy measures such as pedestrianization, parking pricing, bus priorities, and new metro lines. Additionally, plans exist to improve the inner orbital to bypass out traffic, a measure that would seem to be contrary to the rest of the strategy. On the air quality control side, a low emissions zone has been designed in central districts.

The paper presents an evaluation of the effects of the new orbital on both mobility patterns and air quality levels. Paradoxically, the new motorway could reduce pollutant emissions and improve mobility in the entire city.

This paper presents the development of an Internet-based travel survey system for designing car control measures for a new campus site. This system was developed for collecting stated preference (SP) data on commuter trips after relocation to the new campus. Using the personal attributes of the respondents and transportation network data, the system produced customized alternatives for the SP questionnaire. It was found that clear differences exist between stay patterns and modes of travel of faculty, clerks, and students. Finally, the effective control measures of car use were designed and it was found that the Internet-based travel survey system is useful for finding effective package measures.