IEEN 5303 HW5   1

IEEN 5303

HW5

1. Mobility is one of the measures of quality of life that citizens of many developed nations value highly, ranked behind only food and shelter as necessities for life. Mobilityis also a key factor in sustainability because of cumulative effects of providing mobility on the environment, resource depletion, and on the economy. (100 points)

In the table below, data are presented on two modes of transportation, automobiles and buses. Use these data to answer the questions to follow.

Other data and conversion Factors: 150,000 BTU/gallon gasoline*, 163,000 BTU/gallon

diesel*

 4.3+19.4 lb CO₂ equivalents/gallon gasoline (production + combust.)

 3.6+22.2 lb CO₂ equivalents /gallon diesel (production + combust.)

1. Define an appropriate functional unit for a comparison of the bus and car transportation from Table 1 for personal mobility.
2. Calculate the gallons of fuel needed to satisfy the transportation functional unit, and then convert gallons to energy (BTUs per functional unit). Also, calculate the CO₂emissions per functional unit (lb CO₂ emitted / functional unit).
3. Compare bus and auto transport based on energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.