Revd Ian James

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Going lightly

• Environmentally friendly travel

Revd Prof Ian N. James Diocesan environment
advisor School of Mathematics, Meteorology
Physics, University of Reading.
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Fossil fuelled transport

• Fossil fuel burning

water

butane
oxygen
carbon dioxide
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Typical household

• Annual emissions tonnes of carbon per year.
• Typical UK household emits 9 tonnes C per year

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Discussion point

• You have to take your family of 4 from Reading to
  Edinburgh. Which mode emits least carbon dioxide?
• Driving in a car
• Flying
• Diesel train on the East Coast main line
• Electric train on the West Coast main line

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Motor transport

• - Personal transport

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Car use

• Typical fuel consumption?
• Miles per year?
• Fuel type (petrol, diesel, LPG)?
• Reduce by 13 for diesel or LPG.

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Rail transport

• - Public transport

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Carbon generated by a train journey

• Government figures suggest train is less
  polluting than a car.
• However, the calculation is very sensitive to the
  assumptions occupancy, type of train, speed
  (IMechE figures)

9
Development of rail technology

• Internationally, rail vehicles are becoming more
  efficient.
• However, in UK since privatisation, emphasis has
  been on speed at expense of efficiency.
• Eg, Great Western mainline has replaced 4500hp
  HSTs with 7500hp 10-car units.
• Disabled access, crash worthiness, etc., have
  reduced no of seats.

10
Rail travel

• Even government is not very sure of CO2 emissions
  by trains.
• Energy consumption goes up rapidly as speed
  increases 220mph train uses twice as much fuel
  as 140mph train.
• Efficiency depends strongly on seat occupancy
• Diesel much more efficient than electric

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Electric trains

• Deceptively clean!
• Fossil fuel is burnt at power station. Some
  energy converted to electricity.
• Pollution at power station.
• Further energy lost in power lines, transformers,
  etc., before reaching the train.
• Some electric trains (Swiss mountain railways!)
  really are green.

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Air transport

• - The fastest growing source of CO2 pollution

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Growth in air transport

• Currently fastest growing source of CO2
• Passenger-kilometres 1,250 million in 1990 to
  2,600 million in 2000 (budget carriers)
• At present rate of growth, demand for flights
  will more than triple between now and 2030.

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Flying Some popular holiday destinations

• Here is the extra carbon emitted taking your
  family of 4 on holiday

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Future developments?

• Can we fix the carbon pollution from transport?

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Developments of the car

• Alternative fuels?
• Hybrid fuels
• Electric cars
• Hydrogen power

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Alternative fuels

• LPG, diesel lead to 13 or so reduction in carbon
  emissions
• Tend to be restricted to larger vehicles
• Better simply to drive a smaller, fuel efficient
  petrol car
• Renewable fuels eg., alcohol, vegetable oils
  helps carbon problem, creates others

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Hybrid power systems

• Eg., Toyota Prius
• Hybrid petrol/electric power
• Base fuel is petrol used to drive wheels or to
  charge batteries, whichever is more efficient
• Consumption of around 65mpg in urban driving
• Less advantage on motorways,

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Electric power

• Looks clean, but is in fact very inefficient
• Secondary power source mostly generated by
  burning fossil fuels.
• Energy losses in power stations, in power
  transmission and in batteries.
• Technical problems limited range slow (milk
  floats!)

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Hydrogen power

• Burn hydrogen in air product is simply water
  vapour
• Perfectly clean?
• No natural sources of hydrogen on earth
• Hydrogen made from electrolysis of water to
  produce oxygen, hydrogen
• Really it is simply a way of storing electricity

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Sources of hydrogen?
power losses
power station
hydrogen plant

• No natural sources of hydrogen on Earth
• Industrial production electrolysis is only
  practical solution
• Wind farms, etc., cannot produce enough hydrogen
• Hydrogen is bulky three times volume of
  petroleum for same energy

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Prospects for hydrogen power

• May be a realistic way of powering future road
  vehicles
• Secondary, not primary fuel need electricity to
  generate hydrogen
• Replacing all current vehicles would hydrogen
  would require 50 expansion of current
  electricity generating capacity.

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.and finally

• Some conclusions

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Re-visit discussion point

• You have to take your family of 4 from Reading to
  Edinburgh. Which mode emits least carbon dioxide?
• Driving in a car
• Flying
• Diesel train on the East Coast main line
• Electric train on the West Coast main line

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What can you do?

• Work out the fuel consumption of your car for
  your typical pattern of driving
• Carry out a journey audit. Record distance,
  occupancy, and priority of journey essential,
  convenient or luxury.
• Look for savings, car sharing, etc..
• Look at holidays. Look for prospects for saving
  miles in the air.

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Conclusion

• We can do a lot to reduce our carbon generation
  from travel by 10-30.
• Little foreseeable prospect of technical fixes
  beyond this.
• But further reductions need real lifestyle
  changes.
• What is Christian basis of the commuter
  lifestyle