Special Issue "Energy Intensity of Transport and Environmentally Friendly Mobility"

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "Electric Vehicles".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2021.

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Tomáš Skrúcaný
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Guest Editor
Department of Road and Urban Transport, Faculty of Operation and Economics of Transport and Communications, University of Žilina in Žilina, Univerzitná 8215/1, 010 26 Žilina, Slovakia
Interests: energy intensity and fuel consumption of transport; alternative and conventional energy sources in transport; energy systems and power trains in transport vehicles; environmental impacts of transport; relationship energy – emissions in transport; environmental sustainability of transport sector in the central European region; environmental sustainability of transport sector in the Danube region
Prof. Dr. Borna Abramović
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Railway Transport, University of Zagreb, P-1, Facility 70, ZUK Borongaj, Zagreb, Croatia
Interests: railway traffic organization;integrated passenger transport; traffic statistics
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Dr. Ondrej Stopka
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Transport and Logistics, Institute of Technology and Business in České Budějovice, České Budějovice, Czech Republic
Interests: transport; logistics; city logistics; supply chain management; logistics centers; logistics services
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Dr. Csaba Csiszár
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Faculty of Transportation Engineering and Vehicle Engineering, Department of Transport Technology and Economics, Stoczek Str. 2, 1111-Budapest, Hungary
Interests: transportation information systems; passenger transportation; electromobility; mobility based on autonomous vehicles; transport system modeling; energy management in transportation; shared mobility
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Prof. Dr. Jereb Borut
E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Logistics, University of Maribor, Mariborska cesta 7, 3000 Celje, Slovenia
Interests: logistics; low emissions cars; risk assessment; supply chain
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The increasing volumes of transported goods and people is a sign of a rising standard of living for the population. A higher living standard requires a higher consumption of goods, services, and people, to which the transport sector must respond. On the other hand, the population has to fight against the environmental impacts of this situation—mainly the energy intensity, global warming, and air pollution. Naturally, higher transport volumes bring more intensive impacts on the environment.

Prognoses show that transport volumes will continue to grow, so the increase in the environmental efficiency of the transport process is a significant way to reach a sustainable transport sector. The effective operation of transport processes, the smart share of transport modes, and the introduction of new techniques and technologies are the main steps which can lead to decreasing the energy intensity, global warming impacts, and air pollution associated with the transport sector.

This Special Issue intends to present original scientific works, with a scope covering the above mentioned issues in all transport modes (road, railway, inland water, sea, and air)—mainly in Central Europe and the Danube Region, but not limited to this region.

Dr. Tomáš Skrúcaný
Prof. Dr. Borna Abramović
Dr. Ondrej Stopka
Assoc. Prof. Csaba Csiszár
Prof. Dr. Jereb Borut
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All papers will be peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Energies is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2000 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • energy intensity
  • energy and fuel consumption
  • alternative and conventional energy sources
  • GHG and emissions production
  • air pollution
  • road transport
  • railway transport
  • inland water transport
  • sea transport
  • air transport
  • environmental impacts
  • environmental sustainability
  • Central Europe
  • Danube Region

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

Article
Modelling and Simulation of the Performance and Combustion Characteristics of a Locomotive Diesel Engine Operating on a Diesel–LNG Mixture
Energies 2021, 14(17), 5318; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14175318 (registering DOI) - 27 Aug 2021
Viewed by 172
Abstract
The article describes a compression-ignition engine working with a dual-fuel system installed in diesel locomotive TEP70 BS. The model of the locomotive engine has been created applying AVL BOOST and Diesel RK software and engine performance simulations. Combustion characteristics have been identified employing [...] Read more.
The article describes a compression-ignition engine working with a dual-fuel system installed in diesel locomotive TEP70 BS. The model of the locomotive engine has been created applying AVL BOOST and Diesel RK software and engine performance simulations. Combustion characteristics have been identified employing the mixtures of different fuels. The paper compares ecological (CO2, NOx, PM) and energy (in-cylinder pressure, temperature and the rate of heat release (ROHR)) indicators of a diesel and fuel mixtures-driven locomotive. The performed simulation has shown that different fuel proportions increased methane content and decreased diesel content in the fuel mixture, as well as causing higher in-cylinder pressure and ROHR; however, in-cylinder temperature dropped. CO2, NOx and PM emissions decrease in all cases thus raising methane and reducing diesel content in the fuel mixture. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Intensity of Transport and Environmentally Friendly Mobility)
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Article
The Use of Artificial Neural Networks to Determine the Engine Power and Fuel Consumption of Modern Bulk Carriers, Tankers and Container Ships
Energies 2021, 14(16), 4827; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14164827 - 07 Aug 2021
Viewed by 324
Abstract
The 2007–2008 financial crisis, together with rises in fuel prices and stringent pollution regulation, led to the need to update the methods concerning ship propulsion system design. In this article, a set of artificial neural networks was used to update the design equations [...] Read more.
The 2007–2008 financial crisis, together with rises in fuel prices and stringent pollution regulation, led to the need to update the methods concerning ship propulsion system design. In this article, a set of artificial neural networks was used to update the design equations to estimate the engine power and fuel consumption of modern tankers, bulk carriers, and container ships. Deadweight or TEU capacity and ship speed were used as the inputs for the ANNs. This study shows that even a linear ANN with two neurons in the input and output layers, with purelin activation functions, offers an accurate estimation of ship propulsion parameters. The proposed linear ANNs have simple mathematical structures and are straightforward to apply. The ANNs presented in the article were developed based on the data of the most recent ships built from 2015 to present, and could have a practical application at the preliminary design stage, in transportation or air pollution studies for modern commercial cargo ships. The presented equations mirror trends found in the literature and offer much greater accuracy for the features of new-built ships. The article shows how to estimate CO2 emissions for a bulk carrier, tanker, and container carrier utilizing the proposed ANNs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Intensity of Transport and Environmentally Friendly Mobility)
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Article
Model for Crowdsourced Parcel Delivery Embedded into Mobility as a Service Based on Autonomous Electric Vehicles
Energies 2021, 14(11), 3042; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14113042 - 24 May 2021
Viewed by 378
Abstract
Faced promising development of autonomous vehicles, the concept Mobility as a Service embraces AVs. The autonomous delivery has also been arising and tested for last-mile solution. Accordingly, passenger transportation and delivery service are to be jointly coordinated in the future MaaS. The research [...] Read more.
Faced promising development of autonomous vehicles, the concept Mobility as a Service embraces AVs. The autonomous delivery has also been arising and tested for last-mile solution. Accordingly, passenger transportation and delivery service are to be jointly coordinated in the future MaaS. The research niche is summarized as how to embed crowdsourced parcel delivery into MaaS based on AVs. Electricity powered vehicles are to be applied considering energy consumption and air emission. Research questions are identified as what this novel service is and how it works, especially focusing on task coordination and the related information management. The system engineering process-oriented approaches, matching theory, and numerical method have been applied. The service concept has been elaborated, which contains information system architecture model and functional model. The matching condition of this service is summarized. As the embedded delivery can partially share the demand of traditional delivery service, the calculation scenarios of energy savings and emission decrease per parcel delivery are presented. The results facilitate service planning and development. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Intensity of Transport and Environmentally Friendly Mobility)
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Article
Methodology for Estimating the Effect of Traffic Flow Management on Fuel Consumption and CO2 Production: A Case Study of Celje, Slovenia
Energies 2021, 14(6), 1673; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14061673 - 17 Mar 2021
Viewed by 501
Abstract
The manuscript discusses the investigation of vehicle flow in a predesignated junction by an appropriate traffic flow management with an effort to minimize fuel consumption, the production of CO2, an essential greenhouse gas (hereinafter referred to as GHG), and related transport [...] Read more.
The manuscript discusses the investigation of vehicle flow in a predesignated junction by an appropriate traffic flow management with an effort to minimize fuel consumption, the production of CO2, an essential greenhouse gas (hereinafter referred to as GHG), and related transport costs. The particular research study was undertaken in a frequented junction in the city of Celje, located in the eastern part of Slovenia. The results obtained summarize data on consumed fuel and produced CO2 amounts depending on the type of vehicle, traffic flow mixture, traffic light signal plan, and actual vehicle velocity. These values were calculated separately for three different conditions of traffic flow management. Amounts of fuel consumed were experimentally investigated in real traffic situations, whereas CO2 production was calculated by applying the actual European standard entitled EN 16258:2012 associated with a guideline for measuring emission values, as well as by examining specific traffic flow parameters. The key objective of the manuscript is to present multiple scenarios towards striving to minimize environmental impacts and improve transport operation’s economic consequences when implementing proper traffic flow management. As for crucial findings, we quantified fuel consumption and CO2 emissions based on real data on the number and type of vehicles crossing the examined intersection and traffic light switching intervals. The results show that most of the CO2 was produced while waiting and in the accelerating phase in front of traffic lights, whereby in the running phase through the intersection, significantly less fuel was used. This study represents a mosaic fragment of research addressing endeavors to reduce CO2 production in urban transport. Following the experiments conducted, we can see a notable contribution towards reducing CO2 production with known and tested interventions in the existing transport infrastructure. A procedure embracing individual research steps may be deemed as an approach methodology dealing with traffic flow management with an aim to decrease the environmental and economic impacts of traffic and transport operation; this is where the novelty of the research lies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Energy Intensity of Transport and Environmentally Friendly Mobility)
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