IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v33y2008i5p760-775.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A thermodynamic, environmental and material flow analysis of the Italian highway and railway transport systems

Author

Listed:
  • Federici, M.
  • Ulgiati, S.
  • Basosi, R.

Abstract

The goal of this work is to provide a multi-method multi-scale comparative picture of selected terrestrial transport modalities. This is achieved by investigating the Italian transportation system by means of four different evaluation methods: material flow accounting (MFA), embodied energy analysis (EEA), exergy analysis (EXA) and emergy synthesis (ES). The case study is the main Italian transportation infrastructure, composed by highways, railways, and high-speed railways (high-speed trains, HST) sub-systems supporting both passengers and freight transport. All the analyses have been performed based on a common database of material, labor, energy and fuel input flows used in the construction, maintenance and yearly use of roads, railways and vehicles. Specific matter and energy intensities of both passenger and freight transportation services were calculated factors affecting results as well as strength and weakness points of each transportation modality were also stressed. Results pointed out that the most important factors in determining the acceptability of a transportation system are not only the specific fuel consumption and the energy and material costs of vehicles, as it is common belief, but also the energy and material costs for infrastructure construction as well as its intensity of use (with special focus on load factor of vehicles). The latter become the dominant factors in HST modality, due to technological and safety reasons that require high energy-cost materials and low intensity of traffic. This translates into very high thermodynamic and environmental costs for passenger and freight transported, among which an embodied energy demand up to 1.44MJ/p-km and 3.09MJ/t-km, respectively.

Suggested Citation

  • Federici, M. & Ulgiati, S. & Basosi, R., 2008. "A thermodynamic, environmental and material flow analysis of the Italian highway and railway transport systems," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 760-775.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:33:y:2008:i:5:p:760-775
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2008.01.010
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544208000418
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2008.01.010?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sciubba, Enrico & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2005. "Emergy and exergy analyses: Complementary methods or irreducible ideological options?," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 30(10), pages 1953-1988.
    2. Schleisner, L, 2000. "Life cycle assessment of a wind farm and related externalities," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 279-288.
    3. Brown, M. T. & Herendeen, R. A., 1996. "Embodied energy analysis and EMERGY analysis: a comparative view," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 219-235, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Meng, Fanxin & Liu, Gengyuan & Yang, Zhifeng & Casazza, Marco & Cui, Shenghui & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2017. "Energy efficiency of urban transportation system in Xiamen, China. An integrated approach," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 186(P2), pages 234-248.
    2. Jesuina Chipindula & Hongbo Du & Venkata S. V. Botlaguduru & Doeun Choe & Raghava R. Kommalapati, 2022. "Life cycle environmental impact of a high-speed rail system in the Houston-Dallas I-45 corridor," Public Transport, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 481-501, June.
    3. Cipek, Mihael & Pavković, Danijel & Kljaić, Zdenko & Mlinarić, Tomislav Josip, 2019. "Assessment of battery-hybrid diesel-electric locomotive fuel savings and emission reduction potentials based on a realistic mountainous rail route," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 173(C), pages 1154-1171.
    4. Raupova, Ozoda & Kamahara, Hirotsugu & Goto, Naohiro, 2014. "Assessment of physical economy through economy-wide material flow analysis in developing Uzbekistan," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 76-85.
    5. Jing Bai & Jiansheng Qu & Tek Narayan Maraseni & Jinjia Wu & Li Xu & Yujie Fan, 2019. "Spatial and Temporal Variations of Embodied Carbon Emissions in China’s Infrastructure," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-17, January.
    6. Huang, Shupei & An, Haizhong & Viglia, Silvio & Fiorentino, Gabriella & Corcelli, Fabiana & Fang, Wei & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2018. "Terrestrial transport modalities in China concerning monetary, energy and environmental costs," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 129-141.
    7. Atılgan, Ramazan & Turan, Önder & Altuntaş, Önder & Aydın, Hakan & Synylo, Kateryna, 2013. "Environmental impact assessment of a turboprop engine with the aid of exergy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 664-671.
    8. Huang, Yeran & Yang, Lixing & Tang, Tao & Gao, Ziyou & Cao, Fang, 2017. "Joint train scheduling optimization with service quality and energy efficiency in urban rail transit networks," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 1124-1147.
    9. Lu, Hongfang & Xu, FengYing & Liu, Hongxiao & Wang, Jun & Campbell, Daniel E. & Ren, Hai, 2019. "Emergy-based analysis of the energy security of China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 181(C), pages 123-135.
    10. Turan, Onder, 2015. "An exergy way to quantify sustainability metrics for a high bypass turbofan engine," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 722-736.
    11. Ji, Xi & Chen, G.Q. & Chen, B. & Jiang, M.M., 2009. "Exergy-based assessment for waste gas emissions from Chinese transportation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(6), pages 2231-2240, June.
    12. Aydın, Hakan & Turan, Önder & Karakoç, T. Hikmet & Midilli, Adnan, 2013. "Exergo-sustainability indicators of a turboprop aircraft for the phases of a flight," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 550-560.
    13. Cristiano, S. & Ulgiati, S. & Gonella, F., 2021. "Systemic sustainability and resilience assessment of health systems, addressing global societal priorities: Learnings from a top nonprofit hospital in a bioclimatic building in Africa," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    14. Brown, Mark T. & Protano, Gaetano & Ulgiati, Sergio, 2011. "Assessing geobiosphere work of generating global reserves of coal, crude oil, and natural gas," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(3), pages 879-887.
    15. Federici, M. & Ulgiati, S. & Basosi, R., 2009. "Air versus terrestrial transport modalities: An energy and environmental comparison," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 1493-1503.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Baral, Anil & Bakshi, Bhavik R., 2010. "Emergy analysis using US economic input–output models with applications to life cycles of gasoline and corn ethanol," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 221(15), pages 1807-1818.
    2. Bastianoni, S. & Facchini, A. & Susani, L. & Tiezzi, E., 2007. "Emergy as a function of exergy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 1158-1162.
    3. Almeida, C.M.V.B. & Borges, D. & Bonilla, S.H. & Giannetti, B.F., 2010. "Identifying improvements in water management of bus-washing stations in Brazil," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 54(11), pages 821-831.
    4. Hoang, Viet-Ngu & Rao, D.S. Prasada, 2010. "Measuring and decomposing sustainable efficiency in agricultural production: A cumulative exergy balance approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 1765-1776, July.
    5. Gasparatos, Alexandros & El-Haram, Mohamed & Horner, Malcolm, 2009. "The argument against a reductionist approach for measuring sustainable development performance and the need for methodological pluralism," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 245-256.
    6. Giannetti, B.F. & Almeida, C.M.V.B. & Bonilla, S.H., 2010. "Comparing emergy accounting with well-known sustainability metrics: The case of Southern Cone Common Market, Mercosur," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 3518-3526, July.
    7. Ju, L.P. & Chen, B., 2011. "Embodied energy and emergy evaluation of a typical biodiesel production chain in China," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(14), pages 2385-2392.
    8. Bastianoni, Simone & Morandi, Fabiana & Flaminio, Tommaso & Pulselli, Riccardo M. & Tiezzi, Elisa B.P., 2011. "Emergy and emergy algebra explained by means of ingenuous set theory," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(16), pages 2903-2907.
    9. Liao, Wenjie & Heijungs, Reinout & Huppes, Gjalt, 2012. "Thermodynamic analysis of human–environment systems: A review focused on industrial ecology," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 76-88.
    10. Amaral, Luís P. & Martins, Nélson & Gouveia, Joaquim B., 2016. "A review of emergy theory, its application and latest developments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 882-888.
    11. Hoang, Viet-Ngu & Alauddin, Mohammad, 2009. "Analysis of Agricultural Sustainability: A Review of Exergy Methodologies and Their Application in OECD," MPRA Paper 90406, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 15 Mar 2010.
    12. Jiang, M.M. & Chen, B., 2011. "Integrated urban ecosystem evaluation and modeling based on embodied cosmic exergy," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(13), pages 2149-2165.
    13. Sciubba, Enrico, 2010. "On the Second-Law inconsistency of Emergy Analysis," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(9), pages 3696-3706.
    14. Le Corre, O. & Truffet, L., 2012. "Exact computation of emergy based on a mathematical reinterpretation of the rules of emergy algebra," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 101-113.
    15. Patterson, Murray G., 2012. "Are all processes equally efficient from an emergy perspective?," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 226(C), pages 77-91.
    16. Lugaric, Luka & Krajcar, Slavko, 2016. "Transforming cities towards sustainable low-carbon energy systems using emergy synthesis for support in decision making," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 471-482.
    17. Marvuglia, Antonino & Benetto, Enrico & Rios, Gordon & Rugani, Benedetto, 2013. "SCALE: Software for CALculating Emergy based on life cycle inventories," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 248(C), pages 80-91.
    18. Jamali-Zghal, N. & Lacarrière, B. & Le Corre, O., 2015. "Metallurgical recycling processes: Sustainability ratios and environmental performance assessment," Resources, Conservation & Recycling, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 66-75.
    19. Seghetta, Michele & Østergård, Hanne & Bastianoni, Simone, 2014. "Energy analysis of using macroalgae from eutrophic waters as a bioethanol feedstock," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 288(C), pages 25-37.
    20. Mayumi, Kozo & Tanikawa, Hiroki, 2012. "Going beyond energy accounting for sustainability: Energy, fund elements and the economic process," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 18-26.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:33:y:2008:i:5:p:760-775. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.