REGIONAL ANALYSIS OF RENEWABLE TRANSPORTATION FUELS – PRODUCTION AND CONSUMPTION

1 online resource (113 pages) : PDF

2016

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

The transportation sector contributes more than a quarter of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Replacing fossil fuels with renewable fuels can be a key solution to mitigate GHG emissions from the transportation sector. Particularly, we have focused on land-based production of renewable fuels from landfills and brownfield in the southeastern region of the United States. These so call marginal lands require no direct land-use change to avoid environmental impact and, furthermore, have rendered opportunities for carbon trading and low-carbon intensity business. The resources potential and production capacity were derived using federal and state energy databases with the aid of GIS techniques. To maximize fuels production and land-use efficiency, a scheme of co-location renewable transportation fuels for production on landfills was conducted as a case study. Results of economic modeling analysis indicate that solar panel installed on landfill sites could generate a positive return within the project duration, but the biofuel production within the landfill facility is relatively uncertain, requiring proper sizing of the onsite processing facility, economic scale of production and available tax credits. From the consumers’ perspective, a life-cycle cost analysis has been conducted to determine the economic and environmental implications of different transportation choices by consumers. Without tax credits, only the hybrid electric vehicles have lifetime total costs equivalent to a conventional vehicles differing by about 1 to 7%. With tax credits, electric and hybrid electric vehicles could be affordable and attain similar lifetime total costs as compared to conventional vehicles. The dissertation research has provided policy-makers and consumers a pathway of prioritizing investment on sustainable transportation systems with a balance of environmental benefits and economic feasibility.

doctoral dissertations

Power resources
Environmental economics
Human ecology--Study and teaching

Ph.D.

Alternative Vehicles
Environmental Economics
Marginal Land
Renewable Transportation Fuels

Civil Engineering

Wu, Jy
Allan, Craig

Bowen, James
Tseng, Hui-kuan
Clinton, Sandra

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2016.

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Liu_uncc_0694D_11170

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:287