Delucchi, reported in early 2023 that this report documented the changes to the methods and data in a recently revised version of the greenhouse-gas emissions model originally documented in Emissions of Greenhouse Gases from the Use of Transportation Fuels and Electricity, ANL/ESD/TM-22, Volumes 1 and 2, Center for Transportation Research, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne (ANL), Illinois (DeLuchi, 1991, 1993). The revised Lifecycle Emissions Model (LEM) calculates energy use, air-pollutant emissions, and CO2-equivalent emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), chlorofluorocarbons (CFC12), nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), non-methane organic compounds (NMOCs) weighted by their ozone-forming potential, sulfur oxides (SOx), hydrogen (H2), and particulate matter (PM) from the lifecycle of fuels and materials for a wide range of transportation modes, vehicles, and fuels.
The LEM has been revised considerably since the publication of the original ANL report in 1993. These revisions are documented in this report and the
accompanying appendices. The main report presents most of the changes made to the LEM:
· changes to input and output;
· changes to data assumptions and model structure;
· emission sources added
· transportation modes, fuels, and vehicles added; and much more.
Separate appendices cover diesel-like fuel derived from soybean oil, analyses done for other countries, CO2-equivalency factors, details of estimates of CH4 and N2O emission factors, the lifecycle of materials, emissions from agricultural soils, references to this main text, and other areas.
Note that this report presents only a sample of some of the results from the LEM. A complete set of results may be published in a separate report. Because this report documents changes made to the model presented originally in DeLuchi (1991, 1993), it often refers to the relevant tables and sections of the original DeLuchi reports.
The need for this effort includes highway vehicles as a major source of urban air pollutants and so-called “greenhouse gases”. In most cities in North America and Europe, light-duty gasoline vehicles are major sources of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), nitrogen oxides (NOx), and toxic air pollutants, and the single largest source of carbon monoxide (CO). Heavy-duty diesel vehicles can be a significant source of NOx, sulfur oxides (SOx), and particulate matter (PM).
These air-pollutant emissions from highway vehicles lead to serious air-quality problems. Urban areas throughout the world routinely violate national ambient air quality standards and international air-quality guidelines promulgated by the World Health Organization (WHO), especially for ambient ozone and PM. Clinical and epidemiological studies have associated ambient levels of PM, O3, and other pollutants with human morbidity and mortality (U. S. EPA, 1996a, 1996b; McCubbin and Delucchi, 1999, 1996; Rabl and Spadaro, 2000). In response to these apparently serious health effects, the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency has promulgated new ambient air quality standards for O3 and PM, and the WHO has determined that there
is no “acceptable” or safe level of PM.
Motor vehicles also are a major source of carbon dioxide (CO2), the most significant of the anthropogenic pollutants that can affect global climate. In the U. S., the highway-fuel lifecycle contributes about 30% of all CO2 emitted from the use of fossil fuels (DeLuchi, 1991). In the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), the highway-fuel lifecycle contributes about one-quarter of all CO2 emitted from the use of fossil fuels (DeLuchi, 1991; emissions in Europe are below the OECD-wide average, and emissions in the U. S. above). Worldwide, the highway fuel-lifecycle contributes less than 20% of total CO2 emissions from the use of fossil fuels, primarily because outside the OECD relatively few people own and drive cars.
Many scientists now conclude that an increase in the concentration of CO2 and other “greenhouse” gases, such as methane and nitrous oxide, will increase the mean global temperature of the earth. In 1995, an international team of scientists, working as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), concluded that “the balance of evidence suggests that there is a discernible human influence on global climate” (IPCC, 1996a, p. 5). In the long run, this global climate change might affect agriculture, coastal developments, urban infrastructure, human health, and other aspects of life on earth (IPCC, 1996b). (See Appendix D for a brief and somewhat dated overview of greenhouse gases and climate change.)
Interest in alternative transportation fuels and modes.
These local, regional, and global environmental concerns are influencing international, national, and sub-national transportation policy. Over the past decade, policy makers worldwide have become increasingly interested in developing alternative fuels and vehicle technologies to reduce emissions of urban air pollutants and greenhouse gases from the transportation sector. For example, in the U. S., the “Climate Change Action Plan” proposed by President Clinton and Vice President Gore in 1993 called on the “National Economic Council, the Office on Environmental Policy, and the Office of Science and Technology Policy to co-chair a process...to develop measures to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from personal motor vehicles, including cars and light trucks” (Clinton and Gore, 1993, p. 30). The U. S. Energy Information Administration (Alternatives to Traditional Transportation Fuels 1994, Volume 2: Emissions of Greenhouse Gases, 1996) of the U. S. Department of Energy has published an analysis of emissions of greenhouse gases from alternative fuels, based mainly on an earlier version of the revised model described here.
The IPCC (1996b) reviews the potential of alternative fuels and alternative transportation modes to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases from
transportation. There are similar initiatives in Europe, Japan, and elsewhere. (See Sperling and DeLuchi, 1993, for an evaluation of the air pollution and greenhouse gas impacts of alternative fuels in the OECD.) In 1991, the United Nations Development Program, the United Nations Environment Programme, and the World Bank established the Global Environment Facility (GEF), to help protect the global environment and promote sustainable economic growth.
Transportation projects funded by the GEF have evaluated alternative transportation fuels and modes for their effectiveness in reducing the impact of transportation on air quality and global climate. Given the growing consensus that emissions of greenhouse gases will affect global climate, the continuing problem of urban air pollution, and the expanding interest in transportation alternatives to gasoline-powered passenger cars, it is useful to keep the lifecycle energy-use and emissions model, which has been widely used and cited, up to date; hence, this major revision of the LEM. Because the model has been expanded to include PM and SO2 emissions, in considerable detail, it is no longer referred to as a greenhouse-gas emissions model (even though PM and SO2 do affect climate).
See: Appendix to this report: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7937w470
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