Environmental Impacts of Ebikes in Chinese Cities

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Environmental Impacts of E-bikes in Chinese Cities

• BAQ 2006
• Sub-workshop 16 Tailpipe Emissions from 2-3
  Wheelers
• December 14, 2006
• Christopher R. Cherry
• PhD Candidate
• Institute of Transportation Studies
• University of California, Berkeley
• Jonathan Weinert
• PhD Candidate
• Institute of Transportation Studies
• University of California, Davis
• Chaktan Ma
• Graduate Researcher
• Institute of Transportation Engineering
• Tsinghua University

Partnership with Pan Haixiao-Tongji
University Xiong Jian-Kunming University
of Science and Technology Yang
Xinmiao-Tsinghua University
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Outline

• Brief Introduction
• Research Objective
• Approach, Methodology, Data
• Results
• Future Research

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Emergence of Electric Two-Wheelers in large
Chinese Cities

• Most large Chinese cities have banned or heavily
  restricted gasoline motorcycles in the city
  center. In response, electric bicycles and
  scooters that can ride in the bike lane have
  gained popularity and mode share.

Sources Jamerson (2004) LuYuan Electric Bike
Company (2006), Yu (2004), China Statistical
Yearbook (2005)
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Emergence of Electric Bicycles in large Chinese
Cities

• Several cities have (attempted) bans on e-bikes
• Guangzhou, Beijing, Fuzhou
• What are the effects of these bikes on the
  transportation system?
• Environmental implications
• Energy use and emissions
• -Production and Use
• Hazardous Waste-Lead Acid Batteries
• Safety of electric bikes and others in lanes
• Congestion
• Increased mobility and accessibility
• Compared to what modes?

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Research Objective-Approach

• Identify Life-cycle environmental impacts of
  e-bikes in Chinese cities (production, use,
  disposal)
• Energy
• Emissions
• Compared to what modes? Bus and Bike

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Environmental Impacts-Production

• Production Energy Use and Emissions
• Raw Materials
• Energy intensities and emission intensities from
  raw material production
• Assembly Processes
• Assumes 5 batteries over lifespan, and 3 sets of
  tires (10 year lifespan)

Sources China statistical yearbook (2004, 2005),
China industrial yearbook (2004), China Data
Online, Mao et al. (2006), Price et al. (2001)
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Environmental Impacts-Use

• SSEB E-bike Energy Use
• 1.3kWh/100km
• 6.6 electricity transmission loss (national
  average), 6.1 in-plant electricity use
• 50,000 km life735kWh0.09 tonne SCE
• Emissions from Electricity Production
• Kunming1 52 hydro, 48 coal
• Shanghai 2 hydro, 98 coal
• All China 15 hydro, 75 coal, 8 gas, 2
  nuclear

• China Statistical Yearbook 2005, Energy
  Foundation China 2005

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Environmental Impacts-Lead

• Battery Pollution
• 95 of electric bikes use lead acid batteries
• Lead batteries last about 300 recharges or 1-2
  years (10,000 km)
• China Lead Acid Battery Recycling/Loss Rates1
• 4.8 Loss Rate During Manufacture
• 27.5 Loss Rate During Mining, Smeltering and
  Recycling
• 62 Recycling Rate
• 36V (10.3kg), 48V (14.7kg) lead content
• 36V-3.214 kg lost during manufacture, 3.914 kg
  lost due to low recycle rate
• 48V-4.689 kg lost during manufacture, 5.586 kg
  lost due to low recycling rate
• Electric bikes indirectly emit 712-1028 mg/km
  into environment!
• If 100 recycled, still 321-469mg/km into
  environment
• For Sake of Comparison-in the USA
• 4 loss from virgin production, 2 from recycling
  and 1 from manufacturing
• A 7.9L/100km (30mpg) car running on leaded fuel
  emits 33mg/km

1Mao et al. (2006) 2Lave et al.(1995)
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Lifecycle Impacts
0.37 1.53 8.20 8.75
2234 38.87 50.67
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What Are E-bikers Alternatives?

• The net environmental impacts are relative to the
  next best alternatives.
• 3 E-bike surveys conducted in Spring 2006
• Shanghai, Kunming, Shijiazhuang
• Vast majority of respondents would shift to bus
  or bicycle if e-bikes banned
• Bicycles are most benign-zero use emissions and
  low production emissions
• Buses are big polluters, but also big people
  movers

Image source Cervero (2005)
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Bus Emissions

• Majority of E-bike environmental impact during
  production phase
• Majority of Bus impact during use phase

1 Air Resources Board (2001, 2002), Nylund and
Erkkila (2005), Embarq (2006)
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Other Impacts of E-bikes

• Other impacts
• contribution to congestion?
• Are e-bikes any worse than bicycles?
• safety?
• Crash/fatality rate much lower than cars,
  slightly higher than bicycles
• mobility and accessibility?
• Buses cannot provide equal levels of personal
  mobility in Chinese cities-access and egress lost
  time

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Job Accessibility in Kunming-20 Min
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Conclusions

• Rather than ban e-bikes, target regulation toward
  problematic areas
• Lead battery taxpull industry toward better
  batteries
• E-bikes in infancy and performance will improve
• Need predictable standards/regulation for
  industry to invest in RD
• Longer lifespan and better technology
• Could delay car ownership
• Must consider benefits of e-bikes in policy
  analysis
• Some things e-bike industry cannot fix
• Electricity production industry
• Raw material production industries (lead and
  steel)

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Future Work

• Public Health Effects of Local vs. Regional
  Emissions
• Investigate Full Life Cycle of Alternative Modes
• Identify Regional Impact of E-bike Use and
  Project Future Technologies (battery, power
  plant) and Impacts
• Investigate Other Externalities
• Safety
• Congestion
• Accessibility
• Questions?
• Contact cherry_at_berkeley.edu www.ce.berkeley.edu/
  cherry