This thesis takes EV from the late 90’s as a baseline, assess the capability of today’s EV technology, and establishes its near-term and long-term prospects. Simulations are performed to evaluate EVs with different combinations of new electric machines and battery chemistries. Cost assessment is also presented to address the major challenge of EV commercialization. This assessment is based on two popular vehicle classes: subcompact and mid-size. Fuel, electricity and battery costs are taken into consideration for this study. Despite remaining challenges and concerns, this study shows that with production level increases and battery price-drops, full function EVs could dominate the market in the longer term. The modeling shows that from a technical and performance standpoint both range and recharge times already fall into a window of practicality, with few if any compromises relative to conventional vehicles. Electric vehicles are the most sustainable alternative personal transportation technology available to-date. With continuing breakthroughs, minimal change to the power grid, and optimal GHG reductions, emerging electric vehicle performance is unexpectedly high.

The vast rice production in some developing Asian countries like Indonesia raises expectation on poverty alleviation and energy diversification through second generation biofuel production from rice residues, specifically rice straw. This work attempts to estimate the potential environmental and socioeconomic benefits of rice straw-to-ethanol project in Indonesia. Literature research and interviews are performed to quantify several environmental and socioeconomic indicators that are considered as the major concerns inimplementing an energy project. Assuming all the technically available rice straw in Bali is used (~244-415 kilotonne/year), ethanol production may yield gasoline replacement, lifecycle GHG savings, GDP contribution, foreign exchange savings, and employment beneficiaries of 55-93 ML/year, 140-240 millionUSD/year, 19-32 kilotonne of CO2-equivalent/year, 100-180 million USD/year, and 2,200-3,700 persons, respectively. Sensitivity analyses are done for some parameters, showing that ethanol yield, total capital cost, feed-in-tariff for electricity, and imported crude oil price are the major factors affecting the viability of rice straw-to-ethanol project in Indonesia. / Harnessing agricultural feedstock and residues for bioethanol production - towards a sustainable biofuel strategy in Indonesia

2019 was the year with the highest measured amount of GHG emissions in history, indicating that our existing way of living is unsustainable and demands substantial changes. New ways of governing environmental issues are therefore being called upon in which the local level has great potential to create change. Sustainability measures involving integrated social dimensions which questions the motive for performing or engaging in emission demanding activities are found leading to a more long-lasting change. In Sweden, the decentralized decision model makes municipalities have a large responsibility for creating change in crucial emission demanding areas. Recognizing these concerns, this study applies a multi-dimensional system perspective with a broad range of cultural, habitual and technological aspects by Jensen et al. (2019) on three front-running municipalities (Tyresö, Växjö and Lund) working to reduce emission levels. The study focuses on distinguishing between different drivers for change among sustainability measures regarding energy and mobility functions, with a specific focus on the account of incorporated social dimensions. The results indicate that there is a lack of integrated social dimensions among the selected municipalities, in which only 26% of the grand total of 220 analyzed measures involve integrated social elements which enables a system-wide change. Technical and individual behavioural changes are far more prioritized than changes which are linked to collective lifestyle aspects and involve a mixture of technology, norms, cultures and organizations within the society, which are aspects proven more likely to lead to a system-wide change. The study provides knowledge on the capability of local decision making to enforce a systemic change toward sustainability if the current measures are carried out, in which the results indicate that the change among the three selected municipalities will be limited.

The Massachusetts Green Communities Grant Program (GCP) was created by passage of the Massachusetts Green Communities Act in 2008, which provides funding, tools and technical support to assist local communities in achieving the goal of energy efficiency and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction. With the growing number of communities designated as GCP participants over the past two years, public focus has increasingly turned towards assessing the relative effectiveness of the GCP compared to other programs. The purpose of this research is to evaluate the relative effectiveness of the Green Communities Grant Program in supporting participating local governments to mitigate and adapt to climate change, especially in the areas of energy efficiency and emissions reduction. The findings are based on comparative case study analysis between participant Green Communities and non-Green Communities with comparable population size. The results of the qualitative analysis indicated that the communities with relatively strong regional planning agency assistance, relatively large planning departments, completed master/comprehensive plans, and memberships in other climate change protection and sustainable development organizations tend to have much better performance in energy efficiency and GHG emissions reduction. The research also provides suggestions for future research and recommendations for other Massachusetts communities that plan to implement energy-efficiency projects and emissions reduction strategies, whether or not through GCP membership.

As the largest source of iron in North America, and as the largest energy consumer in the modern integrated steel mill, the blast furnace is a critical part of modern ironmaking. Any improvements that can be made to the efficiency or emissions of the blast furnace can have far reaching environmental impacts as the production of one ton of steel results in 1.85 tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Given the concerted push to reduce greenhouse emissions, novel technologies are needed to improve efficiency. In this study the injection of preheated natural gas, precombusted syngas from a variety of feedstocks, and hydrogen injection were all modeled using computational fluid dynamics, from the tuyere through the shaft of the furnace. The impacts of these various operational changes were evaluated using CFD calculated analogs for Raceway adiabatic flame temperature (RAFT), top gas temperature (TGT), and coke rate (CR). Results indicate that a reduction of 3% to 12% in CO2 emissions is possible through the implementation of these technologies, with each possessing distinct benefits and drawbacks for industrial implementation.

Changes in climate caused by changes in anthropogenic (i.e. "man-made") greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have become a major public policy issue in countries all over the world. With an estimated 28.4% of these emissions attributed to the transportation sector, attention is being focused on strategies aimed at reducing transportation GHG emissions. Quantifying the change in GHG emissions due to such strategies is one of the most challenging aspects of integrating GHG emissions and climate change into transportation planning and policy analysis; the inventory techniques and methods for estimating the impact of different strategies and policies are still relatively unsophisticated. This research developed a method for estimating intercity passenger transportation energy and carbon footprints and applied this method to three US DOT-designated high speed rail (HSR) corridors in the U.S.-- San Francisco/Los Angeles/San Diego; Seattle/Portland/Eugene, and Philadelphia/Harrisburg/Pittsburg. The methodology consists of estimating the number of trips by mode, estimating the direct CO₂ emissions, and estimating indirect CO₂ emissions. For each study corridor the impacts of different strategies and policies on carbon dioxide emissions were estimated as an illustration of the policy application of the developed methodology. The largest gain in CO₂ savings can be achieved by strategies aiming at automobile emissions, due to its sizeable share as main mode and access/egress mode to and from airports and bus and train stations: an average fuel economy of 35.5 mpg would result in a 38-42% savings of total CO₂ emissions; replacing 25% of gasoline use with cellulosic ethanol can have a positive impact on CO₂ emissions of about 13.4-14.5%; and a 10% market share for electric vehicles would result in potential CO₂ savings of 3.4-7.8%. The impact of a 20% or 35% improvement in aircraft efficiency on CO₂ savings is much lower (0.88-3.65%) than the potential impacts of the policies targeting automobile emissions. Three HSR options were analyzed using Volpe's long-distance demand model: HSR125, HSR150, and HSR200. Only the HSR150 and HSR200 would result in CO₂ savings, and then just for two of the three corridors: the Pacific Northwest (1.5%) and California (0.8-0.9%). With increased frequency and load factors, a HSR150 system could result in CO₂ savings of 5.2% and 1.8% for the Pacific Northwest and California, respectively. This would require a mode shift from auto of 5-6%. This shift in auto mode share would mainly have to be a result of pricing strategies. From these results, HSR may not be such an obvious choice, however, with increased ridership and diversions from other modes, CO₂ savings increase significantly due to the lower emissions per passenger mile for HSR. The framework developed in this study has the ability to determine the GHG emissions for such HSR options and increased diversions.

Die Ergebnisse aus den beiden Dauerfeldversuchen verdeutlichen, dass die mineralische N Düngung wie erwartet den größten Einfluss auf die Höhe der THG Emissionen hat. Die höchsten THG Minderungspotenziale zeigten sich folglich in der Reduktion der mineralischen N Düngung, insbesondere wenn die N Düngung oberhalb des standortspezifischen Ertragsoptimums liegt. Die Anpassung der Fruchtfolge kann zur Erhöhung der Bodenkohlenstoff-Vorräte beitragen und letztendlich die THG Emissionen mindern, allerdings bedarf diese These weiterer Untersuchungen. Die Ergebnisse haben weiterhin gezeigt, dass mit dem Aufbau organischer Bodensubstanz durch Stalldung erhebliche Potenziale zur THG-Minderung verbunden sind. Je nach methodischem Ansatz zur Berücksichtigung von Bodenkohlenstoff-Veränderungen ergaben sich allerdings große Unterschiede in den THG-Bilanzen und letztendlich auch in den ermittelten THG-Minderungspotenzialen. Die Entwicklung eines einheitlichen wissenschaftlichen Verfahrens zur Berücksichtigung von Bodenkohlenstoff-Veränderungen wird deshalb empfohlen. Die Ergebnisse aus der Fallstudie haben gezeigt, dass die THG Minderung in der landwirtschaftlichen Praxis eine Veränderung der Ackerflächenverhältnisse erfordert. In diesem Zusammenhang ist der Anbau emissionsintensiver Fruchtarten mit einer intensiven mineralischen N Düngung wie beispielsweise Winterraps zu reduzieren und durch den Anbau emissionsarmer Fruchtarten zu ersetzen. Im untersuchten landwirtschaftlichen Betrieb erwiesen sich Mais mit organischer N Düngung sowie der Anbau von Leguminosen als besonders emissionsarm. In der vorliegenden Arbeit konnte darüber hinaus gezeigt werden, dass ein positiver Beitrag der ackerbaulichen Bodennutzung zur THG Minderung nicht zwangsläufig mit höheren Kosten für den Landwirtschaftsbetrieb verbunden sein muss, wenn bei der betriebswirtschaftlichen Optimierung die THG Emissionen angebauter Fruchtarten berücksichtigt werden. / The aim of this study was to analyze the potential for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in different land use systems on sandy soils in the Brandenburg region in Germany, based on two long-term field experiments at Thyrow and Groß Kreutz and an on farm case study. The calculations of the GHG balances are based on the LCA standard and the German emission report guidelines. There is currently no scientific consensus on how soil organic carbon changes are to be included in GHG balances. Therefore, different approaches to include soil organic carbon changes in GHG calculations from long-term field experiments were examined. The results of the long-term field experiments showed that mineral nitrogen fertilization had the greatest influence on GHG emissions. The reduction of mineral nitrogen fertilization consequently showed the biggest GHG reduction potential especially if nitrogen fertilization was above the local level. The adaptation of crop rotations may increase soil organic carbon content and thereby mitigate GHG emissions, but this hypothesis requires further research. An increase of soil organic carbon stocks by organic fertilization was shown for the use of farmyard manure. Although this had a high GHG reduction potential, there were large differences between the analytical approaches. This highlights the need to develop standardized scientific methods for assessing GHG emissions from cropping systems. The results of the case study showed that changing the proportions of different crop species can be used for GHG reduction. In particular, the reduction of crops with high mineral nitrogen demand, e.g. oilseed rape, and the substitution with crops having low GHG emissions is recommended. Maize, receiving high rates of organic fertilizer, as well as legumes showed low GHG emissions on the evaluated farm. Furthermore, this study elaborates the potential economic benefit for agricultural enterprises with regards to the correlation of GHG reduction and an optimized crop rotation.