Sustainable Energy Use in Transportation

Catalog description

The transportation sector represents nominally a third of the total energy consumption in the US, and presently, over 90% of this comes from petroleum sources. Transportation is responsible for about a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions and is a major source for several criteria pollutants. This course will introduce students to engineering practices used to evaluate transportation technologies from the standpoint of sustainability with an emphasis on light duty vehicles. Several emerging technologies including battery and hybrid electric vehicles, fuel cell vehicles, and bio-fuels will be considered. Particular attention will be devoted to the energy efficiency and emissions of the technology at the both vehicle and the fuel source levels. Additionally, the economic and social impacts will be examined. No text book will be assigned, and instead we will rely on open-access publications, journal articles, and electronic text available through the library. Approved as applied elective for the Energy & Environment Option and for the Automotive Option.