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Life Cycle Analysis of Pollutant and Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Electric Vehicles

Undergraduate #416
Discipline: Technology and Engineering
Subcategory: Environmental Engineering

Esther Armah - Prairie View A&M University
Co-Author(s): Hongbo Du and Raghava R. Kommalapati, Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX



The global temperature is slowly rising, and the buildup of greenhouse gases and pollutants is becoming greater than the earth can compensate for; It has become a subject of major concern. In order to reduce gasoline or diesel usage and tailpipe emissions during vehicle operations, there must be an increase the use of efficient energy sources. A significant avenue to explore when reducing carbon intensity is vehicular usage. For example, electric vehicles have been gaining popularity in the recent past because of their lower carbon footprint. It is particularly more beneficial for driving in major cities like New York, Houston and Los Angeles. However, transportation policymakers and the public worry that electric vehicles just transfer the pollution from the vehicle operation to upstream operations like power plants. This study examines the environmental impact of electric vehicles when compared with standard internal combustion vehicles including passenger cars and SUVs in different regions in the US. The program used is the life cycle assessment tool for Greenhouse Gases (GHGs), Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation (GREET) model which is a software developed by Argonne National Laboratories. With this modeling software, a calculation of the emissions and energy in the well-to-tank phase and the tank-to-wheel phase is completed. And a comprehensive assessment of efficiencies and impacts were produced from the combined well-to-wheel results. Different emissions such as VOC, NOx, SOx, PM10, PM2.5 and GHGs are evaluated from well to wheel for the years 2016 and 2020, including the emissions from electricity generation in power plants and its distribution. The results show how the reductions in GHGs and some of the pollutants in all the regions differ. In some regions, different emissions like PM10, PM2.5 and SOx of electric cars increase when compared to gasoline cars. The emission trend for electric cars is different from that of electric SUVs. Overall, the emissions vary between vehicle types, different regions and simulation years, mostly depending on the power resources in the different regions.

Funder Acknowledgement(s): Center for Energy and Environmental Sustainability (CEES)

Faculty Advisor: Raghava R. Kommalapati, rrkommalapati@pvamu.edu

Role: I set up and ran the Greet model software and collected data for analysis.

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This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) under Grant No. DUE-1930047. Any opinions, findings, interpretations, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of its authors and do not represent the views of the AAAS Board of Directors, the Council of AAAS, AAAS’ membership or the National Science Foundation.

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