Characterizing the Economic and Environmental Benefits of LNG Heavy-Duty Trucks: A Case Study in Shenzhen, China

Qian Zhao, Wenke Huang, Mingwei Hu, Xiaoxiao Xu and Wenlin Wu
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Qian Zhao: College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
Wenke Huang: Peng Cheng National Laboratory, Shenzhen 518055, China
Mingwei Hu: College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
Xiaoxiao Xu: Department of Civil Engineering, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
Wenlin Wu: College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 24, 1-18

Abstract: Heavy-duty trucks (HDTs) in road freight are a primary contributor of PM 2.5 and NO X emissions in many cities. Shenzhen, a megacity of China, has already made great efforts to promote the green transport transition, including via the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) HDTs program, which may be the largest alternative fuel vehicle promotion program in the world. In order to fully understand the actual efficiency of such program, the economic and environmental impacts of LNG HDTs were analyzed in this study. The results revealed that, while the capital cost of LNG HDTs is higher than that of diesel HDTs, the aggregated cost during the entire operation period of LNG HDTs is 10% to 17% lower than that of diesel HDTs. By replacing existing diesel HDTs mode (including China-I to China-V) with LNG HDTs (100%), environmental impact analysis showed that PM 2.5 and NO X emissions could be reduced by 96.7% and 73.2% in the city level, respectively. Moreover, the environmental benefits of using purely LNG HDTs versus just China-V diesel HDTs were also compared, which indicated that LNG substitution is superior to China-V, with a reduction of 20.9% for PM 2.5 and 35.4% for NO X , respectively. Overall, the effectiveness of the promotion of LNG HDTs is notable in Shenzhen, and these findings could provide references for other cities to promote LNG HDTs and beyond.

Keywords: liquefied natural gas (LNG); heavy-duty truck (HDT); economic benefit; environmental impact; Shenzhen City (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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