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Develop Emissions, Truck Trips and Railcars Estimation
Methodology for Major Texas Ports
Co-Investigator: Qisheng Pan, Lei
Yu, Fengxiang
Qiao
Sponsoring Agency:
Texas Department of Transportation, TxDOT 0-5415
Period:
September 1, 2006 ~ August 31, 2008
Research
Abstract:
As with the growing domestic and foreign
trade, port-related traffic and activities have been
steadily increasing and this trend will continue in the
future. An inventory of port emissions is a crucial step for
a region to comply with the State Implementation Plan (SIP)
required by the Clean Air Act (CAA). Port related emissions
mainly come from mobile sources categorized as sea-side
marine vessels and land side trains and trucks. The Texas
Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is interested in a
systematic analysis and forecast of spatial and temporal
patterns of port related traffic to improve the estimations
of traffic characteristics and emission levels on roadways
around ports in nonattainment urban areas. This project will
review existing methods in literature and select appropriate
procedures to estimate various sources of port emissions.
The emission of marine vessels can be examined by following
EPA's emission inventory guideline and that
of non-road port engines and equipments can be computed
using EPA's NONROAD model. This study will
emphasize on the analysis of port-related traffic and their
associated mobile source emissions. A complementary approach
of commodity-based and vehicle-based methods will be
employed to measure the truck and rail traffic flows from
and to ports. The number of trucks and railcars in and out
of the port is associated with vessel loading and unloading.
The vehicle miles traveled (VMT) of port-related truck
traffic together with idling, age, and other truck
characteristics will be utilized to estimate the emissions
of port-related trucks. Railcar emissions are developed from
fuel consumptions for linehaul locomotives and switch yard
locomotives. A spreadsheet-based package is developed to
calculate port-related truck trips, rail cars, and
emissions. The models in the package are validated and
evaluated in an empirical study on the Port of Houston. They
are further implemented and tested in a case study on the
Port of Beaumont.
Research
Information
For further information about the research, please
contact Dr. Lei Yu by telephone at (713) 313-7282 or by
e-mail at
yu_lx@tsu.edu.
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