Natural gas versus diesel: Examining the climate impacts of natural gas trucks
2015-05-20
(Press-News.org) Some major trucking companies are turning to natural gas to fuel their fleets -- and to earn "green" credit among customers. But celebrating lower emissions could be premature, according to an analysis in the ACS journal Environmental Science & Technology. Researchers have found that converting heavy-duty trucks to run on natural gas could lead to negative climate impacts if steps are not taken to improve engine efficiency and reduce methane emissions from the fuel's supply chain.
Burning natural gas emits less carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere than other fossil fuels, but the process of getting natural gas out of the ground and delivering it through pipelines releases methane, a much more potent greenhouse gas than CO2. So, Jonathan Camuzeaux and colleagues wanted to investigate the climate impacts of switching to natural gas in different types of heavy-duty trucks.
The researchers examined a range of assumptions for methane leakage and several different kinds of commercial, natural-gas truck engines. They calculated that switching heavy-duty truck fleets from diesel to natural gas could lead to worse climate impacts over the next 50 to 90 years than remaining with diesel due to methane's high potency as a greenhouse gas in the near term. But, they added, reducing methane losses from the supply chain and improving natural gas engine efficiency could make switching fuels climate-friendly.
INFORMATION:
The authors acknowledge funding from the Robertson Foundation.
The American Chemical Society is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. With more than 158,000 members, ACS is the world's largest scientific society and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.
To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact newsroom@acs.org.
Follow us: Twitter Facebook
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
2015-05-20
May 20, 2015 -- Available research does not support the contention that athletes are uniquely at risk of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) or other neurodegenerative disorders, according to a review in the June issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.
Widely reported and publicized cases of CTE in retired athletes overlap with other neurodegenerative disorders, while the observed symptoms could result from a wide range of other factors, suggests the review by Dr. Gavin A. Davis of ...
2015-05-20
Americans' energy use continued to grow slowly in 2014, fueled by increases in the use of natural gas, wind and solar, according to the most recent energy flow charts released by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Each year, the Laboratory releases charts that illustrate the nation's consumption and use of energy. Overall, Americans used 0.9 quadrillion (quads) British thermal units (BTUs) more in 2014 than the previous year, an increase of about 1 percent.
The Laboratory also released a companion chart illustrating the nation's energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. ...
2015-05-20
New evidence has linked Arctic warming with severe weather in countries including the UK and US.
Professor Edward Hanna and PhD student Richard Hall, from the University of Sheffield's Department of Geography, are part of a select group of international climate scientists investigating links between Arctic climate change and extreme weather in the northern mid-latitudes.
They have found that while it is too soon to know for certain whether the Arctic played a role in persistent cold events during the extreme wet UK winter of 2013/14 and recent USA East Coast winters, ...
2015-05-20
New Haven, Conn. -- Yale researchers found a close association between acute hospitalizations and the development and progression of disability among older adults at the end of life. Their findings may have profound implications for medical decision-making for older people and those who care for them.
The research was published May 20 in The BMJ (British Medical Journal).
In an earlier study, Thomas M. Gill, M.D., professor of medicine, and his co-authors at Yale School of Medicine had shown that the course of disability for older adults at the end of life was varied ...
2015-05-20
TAMPA, Fla. - Melanoma is predicted to result in approximately 10,000 deaths in 2015. The majority of these deaths are due to advanced stage disease that has spread or metastasized to other sites. The prognosis for patients with metastatic melanoma remains poor, with 5-year survival rates of 63 percent in patients who have metastatic disease in regional lymph nodes, and only 17 percent in patients who have metastatic disease in distant sites. Moffitt Cancer Center researchers participated in an international phase 3 study that demonstrated that a drug called ipilimumab ...
2015-05-20
A team led by environmental engineers from Drexel University are the first independent researchers to take a closer look at the air quality effects of natural gas extraction in the Marcellus Shale region of Pennsylvania. The group used a mobile air quality monitoring vehicle to survey regional air quality and pollutant emissions at 13 sites including wells, drilling rigs, compressor stations and processing areas. Their work establishes baseline measurements for this relatively new area of extraction.
While there have been a number of studies focusing on water quality ...
2015-05-20
The number of new Ebola cases is tapering off, but the search for new treatments continues. Now, one research team has found potential drug candidates that successfully treated up to 90 percent of mice exposed to the Ebola virus. They report their findings in the journal ACS Infectious Diseases.
Bogdan A. Solaja, Rekha G. Panchal and colleagues note that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve any therapeutic drugs or vaccines against the Ebola virus that, since December 2013, has infected more than 25,000 people and taken the lives of more than 10,000. ...
2015-05-20
Despite efforts over decades to diversify the ranks of university faculty, only 4 percent of chemistry professorships at 50 leading U.S. colleges and universities are held by underrepresented minorities. That key finding and others related to diversity in academia came from a new survey conducted by a program called Open Chemistry Collaborative in Diversity Equity (OXIDE) in partnership with Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), the weekly newsmagazine of the American Chemical Society.
Senior Editor Linda Wang and Assistant Managing Editor Sophie Rovner at C&EN report that ...
2015-05-20
HOUSTON - (May 20, 2015) - Whether people locate their sense of self in the brain or the heart can have a major influence on people's decision-making, according to a new study by management and business experts at Rice University and Columbia University.
Overall, the study found people tend to locate the self in the brain.
The paper, "Who You Are Is Where You Are: Antecedents and Consequences of Locating the Self in the Brain or the Heart," will be published in the journal Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
"We view our research as a first step ...
2015-05-20
Twitter 'big data' could provide valuable details about transgender individuals' health and social needs
Transgender and gender nonconforming people are at high risk for diseases such as AIDS and are vulnerable to depression and other mental health issues, but may be reluctant to disclose their identities to researchers due to stigma. As a result, very little is known about their health and social needs.
New research from the UC Institute for Prediction Technology in the UCLA Department of Family Medicine suggests that social media could help fill that knowledge gap. ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
[Press-News.org] Natural gas versus diesel: Examining the climate impacts of natural gas trucks
