Technical and environmental effects of biodiesel use in local public transport

Abstract

Biodiesel use in local public transport could be especially significant in improving air quality in cities. The purpose of the experiments described in this paper was to evaluate the various (10, 20 and 50%) blends of biodiesel with diesel in the context of the engine and pollution aspects. As regards the experimental use of these findings on municipal buses, these experiments were the first reference in Hungary. The ages (15-20 years) and types of buses (Ikarus-280, Ikarus-260) used in the experiments are still common vehicles in Hungarian public transport. During our measurements, there was a significant difference between the change in fuel consumption of articulated and solo buses in traffic when compared to test bench measurements. The proportion of the engine performance reduction is nearly the same as that for biodiesel share in the blends. Most pollutants were decreasing (both at idle and full rpm), but this reduction is not directly proportional to the increase of the blending percentage. However, as for CO2, emission increase was observed in the case of idle rpm in comparison to normal diesel operation, even though this phenomenon was not due to biodiesel use, but the catalytic converter and the fact that biodiesel was used for the first time in the engine concerned. Highlights (for review) Highlights1. Our experiments in this topic were the first references in Hungary.2. Biodiesel use results 13.3% increase in the fuel consumption of articulated buses.3. Increasing the proportion of biodiesel results to similar decrease in performance. 4. All pollutants except for CO 2 showed a reduction.5. The extent of this reduction is not proportional to share of blended biodiesel.

Attributional and consequential environmental assessment of using waste cooking oil- and poultry fat-based biodiesel blends in urban buses: a real-world operation condition study

“…However, the authors failed to offer any explanations about the CO2 reduction observed in their study. The results obtained by Bai et al (2016) were also in line with those of the present study. More specifically, they also reported a decrease in CO and HC emissions when using B10, B20, and B50 (compared with the emissions recorded for B4) on urban busses under idle operation mode.…”

Balancing Tourism’s Economic Benefit and CO2 Emissions: An Insight from Input–Output and Tourism Satellite Account Analysis

“…On the other hand, this result also indicates that among all the sectors in Beijing, the tourism industry was the important emitter and, therefore, should be especially targeted in mitigation policies. Promising measures are enhancing the share of cleaner fossil fuels such as natural gas in the accommodation and food sector [54], using biodiesel in transportation sector [57] and adopting economic instruments such as taxes or subsidies [58]. For the total CO 2 emissions structure of the tourism industry, the transportation sector (S1) was the largest contributor (38.43%) in 2007, while the accommodations and food sector (S3) became the largest contributor (40.90%) in 2012.…”

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