[en] The views of business on government policy issues relating to greenhouse gas abatement are outlined in this paper. While recognizing the need for Australia to make an effective and equitable contribution to global greenhouse gas abatement, it does not believe that acceptance of the targets and timetables implied in the Climate Change Convention will necessarily lead to Australia making an equitable contribution. The feeling is that Australia should adopt a 'no-regrets' approach in line with other OECD countries. This approach includes micro economic reform policies such as emission reduction in energy transport, land management and sink enhancement. Programs fostering relevant research and development in these areas should be adopted. Business is opposed to any form of carbon tax or environmental levy, or any reduction in the diesel fuel rebate. It is believed that the potential of no-regrets measures will be most effectively achieved through a policy package involving mutually supportive government and industry actions. 1 photo

[en] Combined sales of petroleum products on the Finnish market totalled 9.1 million tonnes in 2002, an increase of 0.7% on 2001. This figure includes bitumen, lubricants, and petrochemical feedstocks

[en] This study investigates the dynamics of traffic containing human-driven vehicles along with a fraction of self-organized artificial intelligence (AI) autonomous vehicles (AVs) on multilane freeways. We propose guidelines for the development of AI agents, such that a small fraction of AVs forms local constellations that significantly accelerate the entire traffic flow while reducing fuel consumption and increasing safety. Specifically, we report a 40% enhancement in traffic flow efficiency and up to a 28% reduction in fuel consumption even when only 5% of vehicles are autonomous. This scenario does not require changes to current infrastructure or communication between vehicles; it only requires proper regulations. The results indicate that more efficient, safer, faster, and greener traffic flow can be realized in the near future. (paper)

[en] Highlights: • A FEM based dynamic model for a fire-tube boiler with SPRF combustor is developed. • Dynamic behaviour of five boiler configurations, with a tuned PID, is simulated. • The simulations are conducted while addressing four demand profiles. • At each simulation, the mean efficiency and pressure variation are obtained. • The most economically profitable configuration is determined using NPV as the indicator. -- Abstract: In the first part of the present work, a detailed dynamic model of fire-tube boilers equipped with stagnation point reverse flow (SPRF) combustor is implemented. Experimental data, obtained through a testing procedure, are then employed to validate the developed model. Several boiler configurations with different sizes are next considered and a PID controller is subsequently tuned for each boiler model. In the next step, the dynamic behaviour of the considered boilers, while addressing different steam demand profiles, is simulated and the corresponding overall efficiency is determined. A comprehensive economic analysis is then conducted in order to choose the most suitable boiler model for each profile, taking into account both the corresponding fuel consumption and the required initial investment. The obtained results demonstrate that, beyond a certain size, increasing the dimensions of the boiler leads to a negligible increment in the efficiency. Accordingly, boiler No. 2, which is a notably smaller unit compared to the other configurations, is determined to be the most economically promising choice. Furthermore, the pressure variations of the steam supplied by different configurations have also been studied. The obtained results demonstrated that utilizing larger boilers leads to an insignificant reduction in the amplitude of pressure deviations and does not have any effect on duration of these variations. Therefore, the provided results can be utilized to choose the most economically suitable size of the boiler, considering the customer’s consumption profile, while guaranteeing that the specifications of the customer in terms of acceptable pressure deviation of the supplied steam are also addressed.

[en] This study presents a novel approach to solve the vehicle routing problem by focusing on greenhouse gas emissions and fuel consumption aiming to mitigate adverse environmental effects of transportation. A time-dependent model with time windows is developed to incorporate speed and schedule in transportation planning. The model considers speed limits for different times of the day in a realistic delivery context. Due to the complexity of solving the model, a graph transformation approach is proposed to reduce the complexity of the problem. By means of several steps, the problem is transformed into a vehicle routing problem without time windows. In this way, we can reduce the complexity of the problem. Our method can be used in practice to decrease fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, while total cost is also controlled to some extent. Finally, future research directions and conclusion remarks are provided.

[en] The U.S. Army operates and maintains the largest trucking fleet in the United States. Its fleet consists of over 246,000 trucks, and it is responsible for buying and developing trucks for all branches of the armed forces. The Army's tactical wheeled vehicle fleet is the logistical backbone of the Army, and annually, the fleet logs about 823 million miles. The fleet consists of a number of types of vehicles. They include eight different families of trucks from the High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicles to M900 series line haul tractors and special bodies. The average age of all the trucks within the Army fleet is 15 years, and very few have more than traditional driving instrumentation on-board. Over the past decade, the Department of Transportation's (DOT's) Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Program has conducted research and deployment activities in a number of areas including in-vehicle systems, communication and telematics technologies. Many current model passenger vehicles have demonstrated the assimilation of these technologies to enhance safety and trip quality. Commercial vehicles are also demonstrating many new electronic devices that are assisting in making them safer and more efficient. Moreover, a plethora of new technologies are about to be introduced to drivers that promise greater safety, enhanced efficiency, congestion avoidance, fuel usage reduction, and enhanced trip quality. The U.S. Army has special needs with regard to fleet management, logistics, sustainability, reliability, survivability, and fuel consumption that goes beyond similar requirements within the private industry. In order to effectively apply emerging ITS technologies to the special needs of the U.S. Army, planning for the conduct of the Army's Vehicle Intelligence Program (AVIP) has now commenced. The AVIP will be focused on the conduct of research that: (1) will apply ITS technologies to the special needs of the Army, and (2) will conduct research for special needs wi th regard to vehicle control, driver assistance, integration of vehicle intelligence and robotic technologies, managing effectively the information flow to drivers, enhanced logistics capabilities and sustainability of the Army's fleet during battlefield conditions. This paper will highlight the special needs of the Army, briefly describe two programs, which are embracing ITS technologies to a limited extent, will outline the AVIP, and will provide some insight into future Army vehicle intelligence efforts

[en] Past investigations have shown that the current type-approval test cycles are not representative for real-world vehicle usage. Consequently, the emissions and fuel consumption of the vehicles are underestimated. Therefore, a new cycle is being developed in the UNECE framework (World-harmonised Light-duty Test Procedure, WLTP), aiming at a more dynamic and worldwide harmonised test cycle. To provide recommendations for the new cycle, we have analysed the noxious emission results of a test programme of seven vehicles on the test cycles NEDC (New European Driving Cycle) and CADC (Common Artemis Driving Cycles). This paper presents the results of that analysis to show the zones of the cycle that are causing the highest emissions, using two different approaches. Both approaches show that the zones with the highest emissions of modern vehicles differ from vehicle to vehicle. Consequently, a representative test cycle has to contain as many combinations of vehicle speed and acceleration that occur in real-world traffic as possible to prevent that a vehicle does not perform well for certain combinations because they are not included in the test cycle. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates that it is important to include a cold start to ensure rapid warm up of the catalysts. - Highlights: ► Vehicle emissions on the NEDC and CADC type-approval cycles are analysed. ► The zones within the cycles that produce the highest emissions are investigated. ► It is shown that these zones can differ significantly from one vehicle to another. ► The WLTP cycle should contain as many of the real-world driving zones as possible.

[en] Highlights: • The average lifetime of the China passenger vehicle has increased to 12.9 years. • The survival rate pattern is very different among four vehicle types. • The longer lifetime of fuel-inefficient vehicles would increase fuel consumption. -- Abstract: With the rapid growth of passenger vehicle stock, China faces serious environmental and energy security problems. To reduce and remove low-efficiency vehicles on the road in an effort to ensure vehicle safety and fuel efficiency, China updated its compulsory scrappage standard for motor vehicles in 2013. The new standard increases the scrappage VKT (vehicle kilometers traveled) limit from 500,000 km to 600,000 km and removes the upper vehicle age limit of 15 years for passenger vehicles. 2012–2016 National registration data and 1980–2016 annual sales data were used to examine the on-road vehicle age distribution and survival rate of China passenger vehicle. The results showed that the median vehicle lifetime (age at 50% survival rate) had increased by 2.4 years—from 10.5 years in 2012 to 12.9 years in 2016. Vehicle survival rate by vehicle purpose and vehicle type shows that compared to cars and cross passenger cars (mainly minibuses, which are variants of minivans with displacement no more than 1.0L), SUVs and MPVs have higher survival rates. The overall increase in vehicle lifetime and survival rate from 2012 to 2016 will increase total fuel consumption by 2.5%–3.7% in China.

[en] The stages of the development of fuel consumption regulation for vehicles in the USSR and in the Russian Federation are shown, and the main concepts of the research into fuel consumption regulation for buses are described. The paper considers mathematical models to predict fuel consumption for vehicles with regard to high-speed movement modes, and determines fuel consumption for city buses. (paper)

[en] Two events at the 16th World Energy Congress focussed on the subject of mobility, which is a determining factor of worldwide mineral oil consumption. The study 'Global transport sector energy demand towards 2020', written by a working group led by the Norwegian Statoil company, served as a basis for the debates. (orig.)