Decarbonizing Long-haul Trucking

As climate change poses an ever-increasing challenge for the world, the transportation sector has experienced significant troubles in mitigating its carbon dioxide emissions. Particularly responsible for this development is the heavy-duty trucking sector. Heavy-duty freight trucks are responsible fo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Jones, Robert
Other Authors: Green, William H.
Format: Thesis
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2024
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/157587
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author Jones, Robert
author2 Green, William H.
author_facet Green, William H.
Jones, Robert
author_sort Jones, Robert
collection MIT
description As climate change poses an ever-increasing challenge for the world, the transportation sector has experienced significant troubles in mitigating its carbon dioxide emissions. Particularly responsible for this development is the heavy-duty trucking sector. Heavy-duty freight trucks are responsible for approximately 30 % of the highway transportation emissions even though they only represent about 5.5 % of vehicles on the road. Heavy-duty trucks are also the backbone of US freight, as they account for 71 % of freight delivered to the American people. The corresponding road freight energy consumption has been consistently increasing over the last decades and is expected to grow even further in the future. Emissions must be drastically reduced in order to adhere to the proposed targets of the 2015 Paris Agreement and to limit global warming. This contrast raises a crucial question: how can road freight emissions be substantially reduced while at the same time facing a growing transportation demand? Especially for long-haul class 8 trucks, this question is difficult to answer. This study seeks to elucidate potential competitive powertrain and fuel combinations and eliminate other poor alternative options.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1575872024-11-19T03:42:09Z Decarbonizing Long-haul Trucking Jones, Robert Green, William H. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering As climate change poses an ever-increasing challenge for the world, the transportation sector has experienced significant troubles in mitigating its carbon dioxide emissions. Particularly responsible for this development is the heavy-duty trucking sector. Heavy-duty freight trucks are responsible for approximately 30 % of the highway transportation emissions even though they only represent about 5.5 % of vehicles on the road. Heavy-duty trucks are also the backbone of US freight, as they account for 71 % of freight delivered to the American people. The corresponding road freight energy consumption has been consistently increasing over the last decades and is expected to grow even further in the future. Emissions must be drastically reduced in order to adhere to the proposed targets of the 2015 Paris Agreement and to limit global warming. This contrast raises a crucial question: how can road freight emissions be substantially reduced while at the same time facing a growing transportation demand? Especially for long-haul class 8 trucks, this question is difficult to answer. This study seeks to elucidate potential competitive powertrain and fuel combinations and eliminate other poor alternative options. Ph.D. 2024-11-18T19:12:39Z 2024-11-18T19:12:39Z 2024-05 2024-10-23T20:35:52.435Z Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/157587 In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted Copyright retained by author(s) https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Jones, Robert
Decarbonizing Long-haul Trucking
title Decarbonizing Long-haul Trucking
title_full Decarbonizing Long-haul Trucking
title_fullStr Decarbonizing Long-haul Trucking
title_full_unstemmed Decarbonizing Long-haul Trucking
title_short Decarbonizing Long-haul Trucking
title_sort decarbonizing long haul trucking
url https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/157587
work_keys_str_mv AT jonesrobert decarbonizinglonghaultrucking