Purpose This study aims at performing the first comprehensive well-to-wheel (WTW) analysis on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy uses of petroleum-based automotive fuels, i.e., gasoline and diesel, in Korea. Although the Korean Renewable Fuel Standard is supposed to take effect in 2015, there are very few WTW results available in Korea. In this study, all relevant processes in the whole fuel cycle are covered, which will provide Korea-specific results to policy makers and stakeholders in Korea. Methods Input raw data were collected with the help of Korean petroleum industries and related association, as well as governmental institutions. Literature survey was carried out, especially for overseas processes in the crude oil recovery fields. The GREET model, developed by the U.S. Argonne National Laboratory, was adopted as a tool for WTW calculation, and most of the data were replaced by using the Korean specific information. Additional analysis was also performed for the refining process which was the most energy-intensive in the fuel life cycle. A process-level allocation method was used in calculating the refining energy use of individual petroleum products, which could reflect the detailed refining processes. Results and discussionThe well-to-pump (WTP) GHG emissions of Korean gasoline and diesel are calculated as 12,047-12,677 and 11,025-11,643 g CO 2 eq./GJ Final_fuel , respectively. The main difference comes from the higher GHG emission in the refining process of gasoline than in diesel. As compared to other countries, the WTP results of Korean fuels are smaller than those of the USA and Europe mainly due to higher refining efficiency, while larger than those of Japan with a significant difference in GHG emissions regarding crude oil recovery. In the WTW results with all the Korean vehicle models in 2014 considered, similar weight of diesel models demonstrates overall lower WTW emissions than gasoline models, since the former has both lower WTP GHG emissions and better fuel economy than the latter. Conclusions In this study, a comprehensive WTW GHG analysis on Korean gasoline and diesel was performed to provide Korea-specific results to policy makers and stakeholders. The analysis was based on the official data provided by Korean petroleum associations and companies as well as literature survey and our own analysis. There is a relatively large uncertainty from the refining process, which should be further investigated to improve the accuracy of the results.
A new hybrid system of molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) and homogenous charge compression ignition (HCCI) engine is suggested to improve the overall system efficiency and performance. In the proposed system, the catalytic burner in a standalone MCFC system is replaced with the HCCI engine. The HCCI engine is chosen over conventional spark-ignition or compression-ignition engines since it has been demonstrated to operate with highly diluted reactant mixture, which is suitable to run directly with the MCFC anode off-gas. A nonisothermal numerical model that incorporates major fuel cell losses is developed to predict the fuel cell performance. The fuel cell model assumes parallel anode and cathode flow configuration with LiNaCO3 as an electrolyte. It is integrated with an in-house HCCI engine model to investigate the hybrid system performance. At the selected design point operation around 300 kW power output, the maximum hybrid system efficiency is 21.2% (relative) higher than that of a standalone fuel cell system and, thus, achieving around 60% overall, which demonstrates the potential of the suggested hybrid system as a highly-efficient distributed power generation source in the near future.
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