Energy, Exergy, and Emissions Analyses of Internal Combustion Engines and Battery Electric Vehicles for the Brazilian Energy Mix

Henrique Naim Finianos Feliciano, Fernando Fusco Rovai and Carlos Eduardo Keutenedjian Mady ()
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Henrique Naim Finianos Feliciano: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Centro Universitário FEI, Humberto de Alencar Castelo Branco Avenue, 3972-B Assunção, São Bernardo do Campo 09850-901, Brazil
Fernando Fusco Rovai: School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Campinas, Mendeleyev St., 200 Cidade Universitária, Campinas 13083-970, Brazil
Carlos Eduardo Keutenedjian Mady: Institute of Energy and Environment of the University of São Paulo, Prof. Luciano Gualberto Avenue 1289, São Paulo 05508-900, Brazil

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 17, 1-20

Abstract: Exergy is a thermodynamic concept that ponders the quality of energy. It evaluates the irreversibilities of a machine, demonstrating its capacity to perform work associated with energy conversion. This article focuses on directing public policies and vehicle development toward their most proper usage worldwide. In the urban mobility scenario, there is an obvious demand to decrease greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In addition, the internal combustion engine (ICE) experiences considerable energy losses through heat exchange through the radiator and exhaust flow gases, which are not considerable in battery electric vehicles (BEVs) since there are no exhaust gases subsequent to combustion, nor combustion itself. This work presents longitudinal dynamics simulations of passenger vehicles to understand the magnitude of exergy destruction in ICEVs and BEVs, considering the Brazilian and European Union electric energy mix. Overall, the method can be applied to any other country. The simulation and model parameters were configured to match production road vehicles commercialized in the Brazilian market based on different versions of the same model. Two vehicle dynamic duty cycles were used, one relating to urban usage and another to highway usage, resulting in an overall exergy efficiency of around 50–51% for BEVs considering the exergy destruction in power plants. In contrast, ICE has an average efficiency of 20% in the urban cycle and around 30% in the highway cycle. By comparing the overall equivalent CO 2 emissions, it is possible to conclude that EVs in the European energy matrix produce more GHG than ICE vehicles running on ethanol in Brazil. Nevertheless, there are increasing uses of coal, natural gas, and oil thermal electric power plants, raising the question of how the transition may occur with a general increase in electrification since there is an increasing electric expenditure in all sectors of society, and the renewable energy plants may not meet all of the demand.

Keywords: exergy; internal combustion engine; battery electric vehicle; efficiency (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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