Automobiles and the Environment

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Automobiles and the Environment

• 12-090 Lecture 7
• Text Chapter 3
• Sections 3.1, 3.2, 3.4.1, 3.4.2

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Automobiles vs. Transportation

• Focus on passenger automobiles
• Including Metro Geo to Ford Excursion
• Excluding service vehicles - delivery trucks,
  construction vehicles, buses, etc.
• Issues still apply to other transportation modes
  (goods shipment)
• Similar impacts to environment
• Separate policy regulations usually

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Benefits of Automobiles

• Replacement of horse and carriage
• Economical, safer, smaller, faster (more
  consistent), more controllable/reliable,
• More sanitary - dead horses and manure problems
• Development of mass production and assembly line
• Supply chain economic boom
• Independence

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Costs of Automobiles

• Congestion/traffic
• Air and noise pollution
• Land consumption for roads, parking
• Spread of population
• Accidents and deaths
• Most unintended or unforeseen
• Most on a bigger scale than anticipated

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Major Environmental Implications

• Air pollution
• Ground level and atmospheric
• Materials consumption
• Autos themselves and consumables
• Land use pattern changes

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Ground level Air Pollution 1

• Lead
• Gasoline additive to prevent knocking
• Causes neural problems, esp. in children
• Phased-out in US
• No longer big issue, worse from other sources
• Still used in developing countries
• Older vehicles and longer use of vehicles
• Discuss more later with electric vehicles

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Ground level Air Pollution 2

• Nitrogen oxides (NOx), hydrocarbons (HC), Carbon
  monoxide (CO)
• Formed from incomplete combustion
• Fuel (Carbon Hydrogen) Air (Nitrogen
  Oxygen) --gt CO2 H2O N2 O2
• CO HC NO NO2 (not balanced!)
• Each irritates respiratory systems
• NOx and HCs form bad ground level ozone

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Ground level Air Pollution 2

• Nitrogen oxides (NOx), hydrocarbons (HC), Carbon
  monoxide (CO)
• Regulated as criteria pollutants by EPA
• Initially, reduced emissions with exhaust systems
  (end-of-pipe treatment, literally)
• Now re-designing for efficiency
• using fuel injection systems, better timing
  systems
• Difficult to reduce simultaneously due to
  tradeoffs

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Atmospheric Air Pollution

• Carbon dioxide
• Naturally formed from combustion
• Fuel (Carbon Hydrogen) Air (Nitrogen
  Oxygen) --gt CO2 H2O N2 O2
• CO HC NO NO2 (not balanced!)
• Greenhouse gas (GHG)
• stable, accumulative, traps heat in atmosphere

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Atmospheric Air Pollution

• Carbon dioxide
• Not currently regulated by EPA (but looming)
• 30 of CO2 emissions from vehicles
• Reduce emissions by improving energy efficiency
• burn less fuel overall per mile
• Reduce emissions by using alternative fuels or
  transport
• dont burn the fuel initially

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Embodied Materials

• Where do old cars go when they die?
• 1500 kg or 3000 lb of material per vehicle (2
  years worth of daily personal trash)
• 75 of weight is metals recyclable, usually
• 25 of weight is too small, too cheap to recover
• Composition of vehicles over time
• Change in materials - towards more plastics
• Change in complexity - towards more parts
• Change in function towards more energy sinks

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Consumable Materials

• Gasoline - air pollution impacts
• Oils and fluids - residual materials
• Tires - metal and rubber materials
• Coolants - dreaded CFCs
• Batteries - lead (again)
• Spare parts

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Land Use Patterns

• Road space and construction
• Interstate highway system
• Parking space and construction
• Spread of communities
• More roads and change in use
• Replacement of mass transit
• Similar land use requirements, especially with
  outlying suburb design

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Scope of Impact

• Many unintended, unforeseen problems - why?
• Multiply by the growth in number of vehicles
• 200 million vehicles in US 1999, up 50 million
  from 1980
• Multiply by the growth in number of miles driven
• 3.4 trillion person miles in 1995, up 2 trillion
  from 1969
• Multiply by growth in amenities
• TVs, VCRs, phone outlets, lights, heated seats,
  coolers, etc.

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Policy Issues

• One aspect of personal life regulated
• Individual vehicle requirements
• Safety foremost
• Pollution control
• Operation restrictions
• Economic clout
• Major employer across US
• Major materials purchaser across US

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Life Cycle Stages

• For automobiles, mentioned three environmental
  impacts air pollution, materials use, land use
• From using automobiles and disposing of
  automobiles
• What about other impacts?

Use
Disposal
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Life Cycle Stages
Raw Materials Extraction

• Need to consider earlier stages
• Cradle to grave approach
• Simplified description
• Often think linearly through stages
• Can add loops for recycling

Materials Manufacturing
Product Manufacturing
Use
Disposal
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Life Cycle Stages
Raw Materials Extraction
Mining, refining

• Example automobiles
• Environmental impacts at each stage
• Which stage is most important?
• How do you reduce impacts at each stage?

Materials Manufacturing
Metals, glass, plastics Manufacturing
Product Manufacturing
Automobile Manufacturing
Use
Driving
Disposal
Spare parts, recycling, landfill
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