Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 3.26
Toyota Prius. Delivering low-emission vehicles to the mass market is of critical importance to
the attainment of CO2 emission reduction targets.
Source
: Low CVP.
emerging technologies. There are, however, major roles here for the UK and EU governments
in terms of legislating for mandatory emission targets, the motor industry in delivering them
and for changes in consumer-purchasing patterns. For London, the major legislative changes
required concerning this policy package fall beyond the mayoral remit, and rely on the EU
or UK governments to act. London has to concentrate on applying complementary measures
- low-emission zones, preferential parking areas for low-emission vehicles, or perhaps altering
the specification of the congestion charge to focus on emissions, and applying this over a
wider area (see discussion under Policy Package 3).
PP2 alternative fuels:
Additional benefits can be obtained if alternative fuels are used in
conjunction with petrol and diesel hybrids. There are many possible alternative fuels on the
market - including compressed natural gas (CNG), liquid petroleum gas, methanol, ethanol,
biodiesel, hydrogen and electricity (Khare and Sharma, 2003). Many alternative fuels can be
used on their own; others can be blended with existing fuels and used in vehicles without any
major modifications to the engines. The International Energy Agency (2004; 2009) suggests
that, by 2030, some 20-50 per cent of all fuels in transport could come from alternative
sources, though this is now assumed to be very optimistic. Major issues here are the land take
and water consumption, and the infrastructure required to support mass-market use of alternative
fuels. More recent estimates assume 5-10 per cent of fuel sold as alternatively fuelled would
be more realistic. The electric car has much potential, for city driving in particular. In London
the G-Wiz is available, and theoretically could emit (virtually) zero emissions if the source
electricity was clean. This is a major issue - electric vehicles in France are associated with
