• Energy Research

In recent years, eco-driving has proven to be an effective tool for reducing fuel consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Until now, most research carried out has focused on ordinary drivers applying eco-driving techniques on their usual routes. However, there is little research on professional driver couriers. This research is aimed at analyzing the effects that eco-driving has on fuel consumption and GHG emissions on courier deliveries in small cities such as Caceres (Spain). For this purpose, a real-life experiment was performed with professional drivers with Spanish post vans from the public sector company Correos. In the first period, driving was under normal conditions (non-eco), and after a theoretical training eco-driving course, there was a second driving period (eco). Driving parameters (speeds, accelerations, rpm, and consumptions) were recorded on all trips to analyze how effective the eco-driving was. The research concluded that eco-driving training does not correlate with more sustainable driving for professional drivers under pressure with the need to deliver packages on time. However, there is a trend in fuel savings when using higher capacity routes.

This research aims to find the most ecological itineraries for urban mobility in a small city (eco-routes), where distances are rather short, but car dependence is really high. A real life citywide survey was carried out in the city of Caceres (Spain) with almost 100,000 inhabitants. Research was done on alternating routes, traffic, times of day, and weather conditions. The output of the study was to assess fuel consumption, CO2, and regulated pollutant emissions for different type of vehicles, routes, and drivers. The results show that in the case studied, urban roads had fewer emissions (CO2 and pollutants) but there was an increase in the population affected by pollutants. On the contrary, bypasses reduced travel time and congestion but increased fuel consumption and emissions. Traffic conditions had a greater influence on fuel consumption in petrol vehicles than diesel ones. Therefore, there must be a balanced distribution of traffic in order to minimize congestion, and at the same time to reduce emissions and the number of people affected by harmful pollution levels. There should be a combination of regulatory measures in traffic policies in order to achieve that balance by controlling access to city centres, limiting parking spaces, pedestrianization, and lowering traffic speeds in sensitive areas.

Despite technological advances in engines and fuels, the transportation sector is still one of the largest emitters of greenhouse gas (GHG). Driving patterns, including eco-driving techniques, are a complementary measure for saving GHG emissions. Most eco-driving studies so far have been conducted in large cities suffering chronic congestion problems. The aim of this research is therefore to analyse the potential of driver behaviour for reducing emissions in a small non-congested city. Driver performance parameters such as travel speeds, number of stops, revolutions per minute, and maximum acceleration-deceleration are also studied. The methodology is designed to measure the effect of both eco-driving and eco-routing under real traffic conditions. A campaign was carried out in the city of Caceres (Spain) to collect data on various types of roads under different traffic conditions. This research concludes that eco-driving leads to CO2 savings on all routes and road types of 17% in gasoline engines and 21% in diesel, although travel times are increased by 7.5% on average. The shortest route is also the most ecological, regardless of the traffic volume and characteristics, implying that consumption in non-congested cities depends mainly on distance travelled rather than driving patterns in terms of number of stops, speed and acceleration.

El estudio de la demanda potencial del transporte de mercancías en la construcción de un corredor ferroviario de altas prestaciones es fundamental para poder justificar las inversiones que son necesarias en su construcción y puesta en servicio. En esta investigación se describe la metodología seguida para cuantificar la demanda potencial de transporte de mercancías que conllevaría la puesta en servicio de un corredor de mercancías de altas prestaciones en Extremadura, aplicando una serie de filtros al vagón convencional e intermodal y añadiendo el efecto de la conexión férrea de mercancías transfronteriza Sines-Badajoz prevista para 2019. La investigación concluye que el número de mercancías que se transportan a través del corredor extremeño tendrá dos hitos destacados; uno en el año de su puesta en servicio (2017) y otro en el año de entrada en funcionamiento de la línea férrea mixta de altas prestaciones (2019) perteneciente al corredor portugués Sines-Caia. Las 550.000 t que se han transportado en 2014 ascenderían a 2.400.000 t con la puesta en servicio del corredor de mercancías extremeño y llegarían a 3.200.000 t con la entrada en funcionamiento de la línea ferroviaria mixta portuguesa. Palabras clave: ferrocarril, transporte de mercancías, demanda potencial de transporte, corredor ferroviario transfronterizo

Human activity since the industrial revolution through the use of fossil fuels is changing the natural composition of the atmosphere increasing the so called Greenhouse Gases (GHG). Extremadura’s government decided to react actively towards the predicted climatic variations and for that the “Strategy for Climatic Change for Extremadura” (2009-2012) was approved, which marked the strategies to follow regarding the mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Among the strategies some concrete measures are included like developing annual inventories of GHG emissions and contributing to the development and demonstration of innovative approaches, technology methods and instruments. With this objective in mind, we develop this investigation where data and conclusions dealing with the savings of CO2 emissions are given through a comparison of the actual freight transport in the area of influence of the line Badajoz-Puertollano with various scenarios of exploitation for the new planned infrastructures. The savings of the emissions will be caused by: - The lowering of the emission factors (kg CO2/t·km) in the upgraded railway line in respect to the actual one. - The commissioning of the upgraded line will reduce the number of lorries circulating on roads, whose emission factors in unitary terms are far more superior to those ones which will be produced by the use of the new railways. The research concludes that the commissioning of the corridor will delete 863,000 transport operations on lorries for a five-year period, reducing the CO2 emissions in relation with the road: a 59% if the traction is diesel and an 82% if it is electric.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/CIT2016.2016.3505 

In green urban areas, the allergenic factor is important when selecting trees to improve the quality of life of the population. An application of laser imaging detection and ranging (LiDAR) in building information modelling (BIM) is the capture of geo-referenced geometric information of the environment. This study presents the process of digitalisation of a green infrastructure inventory based on the geolocation and bioparameters of the cypress species. The aerobiological index (IUGZA) was estimated by developing green infrastructure BIM models at different detail levels and with a new BIM dimension (6D) for the urban environment. The novelty of the study is the modelling of urban information for evaluating the potential environmental impact related to the allergenicity of the urban green infrastructure using LiDAR through BIM. The measurements of cypress trees based on bioparameters and distances were applied to the IUGZA. This innovation for describing the current 3D environments and designing new scenarios in 6D may prevent future problems in urban areas during construction projects.