Comparison of different vehicles driyen by alternative fuels and hybrid driveline focusing on emission, efficiency and economy

Air pollution is becoming an important issue in big towns, inparticular in city centres, where the density of traffic is high. Both, passenger cars and commercial vehicles are responsible for air quality. In the last decades more and more transportation companies changed their conventional vehicles into any kind of alternative vehicles. The aim of this paper is to investigate the economic and environmental effects of introducing alternative fuels and power trains in cargo vans. All of the simulated vehicles were equipped with internal combustion engines, but they are operating with different fuels. Gasoline, methane, ethanol and hydrogen fuels are used in these engine models. Conventional and hybrid powertrains are compared too. Only the gasoline fuelled engine is simulated with hybrid driveline besides the conventional ones. Both micro- and full-hybrid vehicles are modelled. Instead of dynamical analysis we focused on efficiency and emission therefore tests drive cycles were simulated. There were cycles defined by standards, like NEDC drive cycle. An individual cycle was recorded on a given route at different times of the day; the vehicle was driven along the planned path and the speed profile was recorded. As a result we could compare the different vehicles from the point of view of emission, fuel consumption and efficiency. In order to validate the simulation results laboratorial measurements were carried out. We also aimed at developing a business model capable ofanalysing the economical effects of alternative fuel and powertrain use. Generally it can be stated that the application of any alternative technology means additional costs (investment) at the beginning for the user. The investment is just worth the money if lower operational costs can be achieved. Achieved savings were calculated with our model and a sensitivity analysis was also performed.