title: Consideration of black carbon and primary organic carbon emissions in life-cycle analysis of Greenhouse gas emissions of vehicle systems and fuels.
abstract: The climate impact assessment of vehicle/fuel systems may be incomplete without considering short-lived climate forcers of black carbon (BC) and primary organic carbon (POC). We quantified life-cycle BC and POC emissions of a large variety of vehicle/fuel systems with an expanded Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation model developed at Argonne National Laboratory. Life-cycle BC and POC emissions have small impacts on life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of gasoline, diesel, and other fuel vehicles, but would add 34, 16, and 16 g CO2 equivalent (CO2e)/mile, or 125, 56, and 56 g CO2e/mile with the 100 or 20 year Global Warming Potentials of BC and POC emissions, respectively, for vehicles fueled with corn stover-, willow tree-, and Brazilian sugarcane-derived ethanol, mostly due to BC- and POC-intensive biomass-fired boilers in cellulosic and sugarcane ethanol plants for steam and electricity production, biomass open burning in sugarcane fields, and diesel-powered agricultural equipment for biomass feedstock production/harvest. As a result, life-cycle GHG emission reduction potentials of these ethanol types, though still significant, are reduced from those without considering BC and POC emissions. These findings, together with a newly expanded GREET version, help quantify the previously unknown impacts of BC and POC emissions on life-cycle GHG emissions of U.S. vehicle/fuel systems.
authors.affiliation: Systems Assessment Group, Energy Systems Division, Argonne National Laboratory , 9700 South Cass Avenue, Argonne, Illinois 60439, United States.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Michael Q
authors.initials: MQ
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D018533:Biomass; D002244:Carbon / Q000032:analysis*; D000431:Ethanol; D005742:Gasoline; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D031786:Saccharum; D014481:United States; D001335:Vehicle Emissions / Q000032:analysis; D003313:Zea mays
chemical_list: D000393:Air Pollutants; D005742:Gasoline; D001335:Vehicle Emissions; D000431:Ethanol; D002244:Carbon