Research On The Path Selection Of Alternative Automobile Fuels Based On The LCA Theory

Since the21st century, energy issue and global warming have become a keyfactor to affect national economic development and national security. Whether it is toconsider the issue of energy security or greenhouse gases emission reduction, theautomobile-used energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in roadtransportation sector, is needed to be focused on. Referred to the energy andenvironmental issues caused by the application of vehicles, an extending study cansuggest that from the stage of vehicle fuel production, energy consumption andemission have already conducted. Therefore, if we want a comprehensiveunderstanding of the entire vehicle fuel consumption and emissions problem, theintroduction of the "Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)" is necessary.In this paper, based on the theory of LCA and the ISO LCA framework, we makea WTW analysis of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions for gasoline,diesel, LPG, CNG, M15, M85, DME, E10, E85, and BD20, ten car fuel lines in total,with the model of GREET1.8. The results indicate that: under the current technologylevel, an absolute superior alternative vehicle fuel does not exist. Therefore, thedevelopment of alternative vehicle fuels should be carried on in a diversified, market-oriented direction.On the basis of WTW analysis, this article has also designed a qualitative modelon the incentives and hinder of the development of alternative fuels. According to thismodel, this article makes a judgment on the selection of the alternative vehicles fueldevelopment path, and puts forward relative policy recommendations. The followingconclusions can be made by the study of this paper:(1) LPG and CNG could only be applied as a regional fuel which cannot bepopularized across the country;(2) When the energy security trepidation is serious, temporarily sacrifice of theenvironment and the promotion of coal-based fuel can be adopted.(3) The energy saving effect of the low proportion of biomass fuels is limited.The development of biomass alternative fuels needs further demonstration.