Question

RAIL AND CARBON EMISSIONS FREE WORLD

1)Improvements to enhance the carbon-free rails? 

2) Factors affecting the carbon-free emissions

• Design of the system that affects the emission rate

• Health issues due to emissions?

 

Answer 1

rail and carbon emissions on free world

accounted for 24.7% of global CO2 emissions and 28.8% of the final energy consumed, rail transport accounted for 4.2% of global CO2 emissions from transport and 1.9% of its final energy demand. In the same year, it accounted for 6.7% of passenger kilometres and 6.9% of world freight (tonne kilo- metres).

Improvement to enhance the carbon -free rails

Expand electrification. ...
Make rail affordable. ...
Switch to green energy. ...
Use technology to increase capacity. ...
Make rail a real alternative to short-haul flights. ...
Last mile. ...
Regenerative braking. ...
Reopen lines and stations.

The following 12 steps are what we believe needs to be done.

1. Expand electrification
An electrified railway can run on any fuel including green sources of energy such as hydro-electric, solar and wind power, and electric trains emit no CO₂ or pollutants, which puts rail well ahead of any other powered mode. The European Union is already urging the rapid 100% electrification of rail networks under its Green Deal.
Countries should assess which electrification projects will result in the greatest reduction in diesel traction. Electrification should match the train service pattern and the greatest volumes of traffic to achieve the biggest effect. Metros and light rail networks are 100% electric and commuter rail networks should aim for this as they serve densely-populated areas where air pollution is an increasing problem.
New hybrid forms of traction such as hydrogen and battery will only have a small impact as such trains have a very short range. Bi-mode electro-diesel trains are not the answer as they weigh more and have higher capital and maintenance costs than either straight electric or diesel trains, and have a marginal impact on diesel fuel consumption.
We know how to electrify railways and the return on investment will improve as rail traffic increases and fossil fuels become more expensive.

2. Make rail affordable
Greater automation and digitalisation and the use of Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things and blockchain will all help to reduce operating and maintenance costs and improve reliability. Rail must be price competitive to succeed particularly when up against low-cost airlines.

3. Switch to green energy
Netherlands Railways (NS) is already running its trains completely on green energy and a few more railways are planning to do so. More electrification will make this easier to achieve, provided green power sources are available.
The roofs of stations, depots and other large buildings in railway ownership should be fitted with solar panels as a matter of urgency to generate electricity for local use or sell it back to the grid.

4. Use technology to increase capacity
We need to be realistic – there simply isn’t the time and money available (outside China) to achieve a massive increase in capacity by laying thousands of kilometres of new track. Investment must be targeted where it will have the greatest effect such as eliminating bottlenecks. We can achieve a significant increase in capacity through technical innovations such as automation, computerised driver assistance systems and digital signalling such as ETCS and ATO over ETCS to reduce headways and improve reliability. Operating higher capacity trains more frequently will achieve a lot, relatively quickly.

5. Make rail a real alternative to short-haul flights
Train journey times of up to four hours are already competitive with air. Operators should study how services can be accelerated to reduce journey times, for example by running more limited stop services or taking measures to eliminate speed restrictions. The objective should be to increase the average speed of trains, and not necessarily the maximum speed.
For longer trips, the only realistic way to achieve a significant shift from air to rail without building high-speed lines is to introduce comfortable and affordable overnight trains and revive one of rail’s unique selling points. Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB) is leading the night train revival in Europe, but other operators must join in. Let’s take advantage of flight shaming.

6. Last mile
Railways need to facilitate walking and cycling to stations, the use of semi-autonomous electric minibuses, as has been demonstrated in France for example, and install electric charging points for electric cars in station car parks.

7. Regenerative braking
Increasing the use of regenerative braking will maximise the benefits of electrification by reducing energy consumption and operating costs.

8. Reopen lines and stations

Scotland’s Border

Factors affecting the carbon -free emissions

the price of carbon fiber, it is very expensive. The material is very light and strong but you have to pay a big amount of money to be able to use it in your products. Once a carbon structure is dint or cracked you cannot fix it like you can fix a steel structure.

Design of the system that effect the emission

Method A: Using total fuel consumed by railway sector This simple methodology proposes arriving at rail transport emission factor when the overall energy consumption of the railway sector is available. It involves estimating the specific power/fuel consumption of rail transport. This fuel consumption is then converted to emissions using the fuels' calorific value & emission factors. Emissions are then allocated to passenger and freight transport on a weighted average basis using distance performed as shown below: Step 1: Calculate overall CO₂ emissions from railway sector (Total diesel consumed X Calorific value X Density X Emission factor) Overall = emissions + (Electricity usage X National grid emission factor) Step 2: Calculate Emission factor - CO2 emissions per passenger km and ton-km MT CO₂ Emissions Passenger-km MT CO₂ Emissions Ton-km = = Overall emissions passenger km performed Overall emissions freight ton-km performed This method can be used when no information on fuel split between passenger and freight trains is available but the total energy consumption by rail traction is known. 2.2 Method B: EstimatingTotal Energy Consumption This method involves determining emissions using the energy consumption of a particular route using the following equation: Step 1: Calculate energy consumption E’ = (N stops + 1) L v max 2 2+ B0 + B1. vave + B2 vave2 + g Dh L p

Where: E' : energy consumption in kJ/ton-km N : number of intermediate stops L : trip length (km) ave v : average speed (km/h) max v : maximum speed (km/h) B : constant equating to rolling resistance 0 B : constant equating to friction resistance 1 B2 : constant equating to aerodynamic resistance g : gravitational constant Dh : change in height Step 2: Conversion of energy consumption to emission factor The equations below describe the method to convert energy consumption to emission factors: m Electric trains E' x mx L xPSEFi 10^6 x P x L m Diesel trains E' x m x L x FSEFi 3600 x P x L Where: E' is the energy consumption in kJ/ton-km m is the mass of the train in tones L is the trip length in km PSEFi is the power specific emission factor in g/GJ FSEFi is the fuel specific emission factor in g/kWh P is the fraction of seats occupied

Health issues due to emissions are

Motor vehicle emissions contribute to ambient levels of air toxics known or suspected as human or animal carcinogens. Exposures to air toxics can also cause noncancerous health effects, such as neurological, cardiovascular, respiratory, reproductive and/or immune system damage.