Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews ()

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Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/rser

Letter to the Editor

Modeling of vehicle fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emission in road transport

art ic l e i nf o
Keywords:
Modeling
Vehicle fuel consumption
Carbon dioxide emission
Tolling systems
Renewable energies

a b s t r a c t
This paper proposes a new mechanical model for vehicle fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions
considering different types of vehicles and their various features, two engine models, namely, gasoline
and diesel, different roads, a range of renewable and non-renewable fuels and wind effect. The aim is to
investigate the effectiveness of new parameters such as temperature, driving style, asphalt efciency and
fuel efciency. The new proposed model is based on top-down mechanical model which has ve parts
including the energy consumed due to loss of gravity, acceleration, rolling resistance, aerodynamic
resistance and cornering losses. Moreover, the proposed model investigates three types of tolling systems. The validity of this model is also examined by analyzing the parameters in the range [
10%, 10%]
and correlation coefcients between the new parameters and ve parts of the mechanical model. The
results indicate that: 10% improvement in driving style in cars reduces 8.81% of fuel consumption; cold
and warm temperature ranges increase fuel consumption by 5.57% and 1.71%, respectively; the PCC type
of asphalt has 6.21% less fuel efciency than AC type; and, the fuel consumption of car using gasoline fuel
is 6.84 times higher than biodiesel fuel. The ndings show that the carbon dioxide emission and fuel
consumption rates increase as we move from free-ow system to electronic tolling system, and then, to
the traditional tolling one. Moreover, the fuel consumption in the electronic tolling system for every fuel
is twice less than the the amount obtained in the traditional tolling system.
& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The emission of carbon dioxide is actively playing its role in the
warming-up of the earth and the increase of greenhouse gas
emissions. Greenhouse gas emissions are composed of almost 72%
carbon dioxide, 18% methane, 9% nitrousoxide and 1% other gases.
The thorough study of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere layer
shows that after the Industrial Revolution in year 1700, the level of
carbon dioxide emission has increased by almost 30% in the world.
Carbon dioxide reduction will decrease the process of warming-up
of the earth and set aside a clean atmosphere for future generations [1]. Industries in developing countries are playing an
important role in environmental pollution. The automobile
industry is one of the most important industries in these countries
including Iran, where the emission of carbon dioxide from automobiles is very high. Since 1954 to date, carbon dioxide emission
in Iran has increased, which is due to the use of fossil fuels. On
average, it has an annual increase of 6.3% [2]. Carbon dioxide
emissions caused by transportation in Iran show the rate of 23.1%
[3]. Road transportation in Iran causes 93% of carbon dioxide
emissions [3]. Therefore, the fuel consumption pattern of cars in
this country should change. It is possible that the country face
increased costs in the short term. However, in the long term, this
will have very positive effects in terms of different aspects
including, but not limited to the preservation of renewable sources
of oil and gas and the use of these sources for petrochemical systems instead of automobile industry, protecting the
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.08.062
1364-0321/& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

environment and preserving this divine gift for future generations,

and also other irreparable costs due to destruction of archeological
sites by carbon dioxide interaction, building materials, acid rains,
treatment costs due to fuel-caused pollutants, stability in the
production of vehicles according to new technologies, lower fuel
consumption using advanced systems and reduction of carbon
dioxide. For the same reasons and by adopting a systematic
approach, it is necessary to develop a model of vehicle fuel consumption to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide caused by
means of transportation through focusing on the impact of
renewable energy.
The proposed model in this paper takes into account certain
features of vehicles such as weight and frontal area, speed and
acceleration, effect of headwind and tailwind. Moreover, we study
different fuels including gasoline and diesel which are obtained
from non-renewable energy sources causing more pollution. Fuels
such as LPG1 and CNG2 are cleaner and more efcient, while
ethanol and biodiesel, which are respectively biofuels of gasoline
and diesel, use renewable energy sources. Subsequently, the process of producing such fuels generates much lower levels of pollution. Other aspects considered in this model are the temperature
as a factor that inuences the resistance of tires and the need to
use fan and sunroof in summer, and heater, seat heating elements
1
2

LPG Liqueed Gasolineeum Gas.

CNG Liqueed Natural Gas.

Letter to the Editor / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews ()

and windows in winter. Temperature has a signicant effect on

driver behavior and change of speed and acceleration of a vehicle
during driving. Asphalt is another factor tested in this model.
Given the special characteristics such as fuel consumption, cost of
production and maintenance, and noise pollution, two types of
asphalt, PCC3 and AC4, were examined in this model.
This study examines fuel consumption and fuel efciency for
different types of vehicles considering their different features
(weight, frontal area, mass correction factor for rotational inertia
acceleration, rotational mass of vehicle, rolling resistance, aerodynamic resistance), different types of engine (gasoline, diesel),
different types of fuel (gasoline, diesel, LPG, CNG, ethanol, biodiesel), different roads (road gradient, type of asphalt, path radius
from center of gravity, cornering stiffness), driving efciency
(changes in vehicle speed and acceleration), temperature (the
temperature range from 0 F to 110 F), and wind effect. The main
reasons for developing the proposed model are to gain better
estimates of vehicle fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emission, because the existing models have a large gap to the actual
vehicles' consumption. Accordingly, the lack of parameters such as
temperature, type of asphalt, type of driving and fuel efciency are
included in the model developed in this paper. Moreover, the
proposed mechanical model is tested under three types of electronic tolling systems.
This paper is organized as follows: First of all, the literature of
the problem in question is reviewed. Thereafter, different common
fuels and modeling processes of the problem are introduced and
the effect of three types of tolling systems on fuel consumption is
investigated. Then, the experimental results and the discussion
analysis on key components are explained. Finally, the validity,
conclusion and future research directions are represented.

2. Review of the literature

Modeling of energy in the transportation industry is a very
important issue that has attracted the attention of many
researchers. A parametric study was conducted on the application
of energy for vehicle transport on two inter city roads of England
[4]. This study lacks information on the effectiveness and efciency of the engine, wind and different fuels. Given the limited
life of renewable sources and instability of current transportation
systems, it is advisable to use hydrogen fuel and fuel cells [5].
However, the increase of accident rate is one of the defects of
hydrogen powered vehicles because normal speed is lower in
these vehicles [5]. Though these vehicles produce no pollution, but
the process of their production and the transfer of hydrogen will
release greenhouse gas [5]. In addition, different specications of
hydrogen powered vehicles and effects of various parameters of
roads have not been yet examined. The emission of carbon dioxide
by motor vehicles such as motorcycles, cars, taxis and urban buses
in Tehran was analyzed [6], but the difference between various
roads, their slope and volume, as well as different characteristics of
transportation means including weight, frontal area, and engine
performance to reduce emissions optimally have not been veried.
The study of fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emission of
vehicles in a highway in Spain has been accomplished by a
mechanical model [7]. However, the effect of headwinds, various
types of fuels, temperature and conditions of roads have not been
studied yet. The increase in demand for electricity for charging
electric vehicles through hybrid fuels, along with the costs of
electricity production were estimated according to the linear
3
4

PCC Portland Cement Concrete.

AC Asphalt Cement Concrete.

programming model [8]. However, the density of transportation

and transport shortcomings, downtime costs of power plants or
change of operation beginning time, downtime and minimum
operation time period have not been studied. A review of research
on electric vehicles and renewable energy sources as effective
solutions to reduce carbon dioxide levels in the area of transportation and electricity production has been performed [9].
Accordingly [9], the use of electric vehicles will have benets such
as the application of renewable energy in electrical networks. An
experimental evaluation by using PHEM5 was performed for
Heavy Duty Vehicle on the highways to the maritime port of
Genoa [10]. However, this model has a number of limitations in
terms of vehicle weight, considering only gasoline and diesel
engines and cold start module. Also, this model is suitable only for
European vehicles [10]. Another study investigated fuel consumption and pollutant emissions from a vehicle operating with
gasolineethanol blend, hydrous ethanol and hydrogen produced
onboard and has shown that fuel consumption is reduced by using
hydrogen fuel [11]. However, this study reported the experimental
results for three fuels considering a specic type of vehicle. Also, it
does not consider different characteristics of the vehicle, road
conditions and etc [11]. A parametric study was conducted with
only gasoline and diesel vehicles by using the AVL6 commercial
program [12]. This study was neglected three parts including the
fuel consumption due to loss of gravity, rolling resistance and
cornering losses. Therefore, the results are not close to reality in
terms of vehicle consumption and emissions [12]. A simulation
study has described disadvantages of using conventional vehicles
[13]. However, it has not studied the fuel consumption due to
rolling resistance and cornering losses [13].
Most of the existing studies have analyzed the consumption of
fuel and the effect of new fuels are descriptive; however, this
paper attempts to consider the new elements that affect fuel
consumption such as temperature, type of asphalt, driving, and
type of fuel along with other parameters including the vehicle
weight, resistance of road, aerodynamic resistance and the wind.
Moreover, the effectiveness of different fuels helps us to study
different tolling systems. Table 1 shows a summary of the articles
reviewed and their deciencies. We tried to resolve these deciencies in the proposed model. Table 2 shows schematically
comparison between proposed model and existing models.

3. Introduction to common fuels

Gasoline is one the most common fuels used in road transport
which is not obtained from fossil and non-renewable energy
sources. It is very pollutant and its tangible and intangible costs is
considerable. Diesel is also obtained from fossil energy sources but
its efcacy compared to gasoline is 30% better. It is also less polluting [14]. LPG is cheaper than gasoline and less polluting, but it is
currently used in a small number of vehicles [15,16]. CNG produces
less carbon dioxide which is a polluting gas, i.e. 80% less than
gasoline [14]. Ethanol is a biofuel and an alternative to gasoline,
which comes from the processing of sugar cane, barley, maize and
other organic products. It can be effectively used in today's vehicles [17]. Biodiesel is an alternative to diesel, which comes from
sugar beet, rapeseed and palm oil [17]. In this paper, to show the
effectiveness of different fuels using the analytic hierarchy process
(AHP) technique, we studied the classication of such fuels
according to specications such as production costs, pollution
levels and application of renewable energy sources in production.
5
6

PHEM: Passenger car and Heavy duty Emission Model.

AVL: Anstalt fr Verbrennungskraftmaschinen List.

Letter to the Editor / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews ()

Table 1
Summary of the articles reviewed and their deciencies.
Used model

Deciencies

References

Parametric model of energy demand

1. Only gasoline engine was examined. 2. Effect of the wind has not been examined. 3. Engine performance has not been examined. 4. Different fuels have not been examined. 5. Effectiveness of
different types of asphalt has not been studied. 6. Effect of the temperature has not been examined.
1. Only fuel hydrogen has been examined. 2. Effective characteristics of vehicles on fuel consumption
have not been veried.
1. Specications of each vehicle (frontal area, weight, tire resistance, etc) have not been veried. 2.
Effect of the wind has not been studied. 3. Effect of different fuels has not been examined.
1. Effect of different types of wind has not been investigated. 2. Different fuels have not been studied.
3. Temperature has not been taken into consideration. 4. Conditions of different roads have not been
examined.
1. This model veries the increase of energy demand for charging electric vehicles and other vehicles,
but it does not check the level of their fuel consumption.
1. The object of the research is electric vehicles and renewable energy sources.
1. Different types of fuels and vehicles have not been examined. 2. Effectiveness of different types of
asphalt has not been studied. 3. Effectiveness of temperature has not been studied. 4. Only urban
driving mode was examined and different changes of speed and acceleration of vehicle has been
omitted.
1. Only different types of fuel have been examined. 2. Effective characteristics of vehicles, road
conditions, different types of driving, asphalt and temperature on fuel consumption have not been
veried.
1. Effect of different fuels has not been examined. 2. Effect of different types of driving, asphalt and
temperature has not been veried. 3. Effect of road conditions and rolling resistance has not been
veried.
1. Effects of different types of vehicles, driving and different temperatures have not been investigated.
2. Conditions of different roads and fuel consumption due to rolling resistance and cornering losses
have not been examined.

[4]

Descriptive and analytical model (without using

mathematical model)
Mathematical model in large scale
Mechanical model

Linear programming model

Different models existing in literature
Experimental evaluation

Modeling of vehicle specication

AVL commercial program

Simulation study

[5]
[6]
[7]

[8]
[9]
[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

Table 2
Summary schematic of the articles reviewed and their deciencies.
Models

Parameters
Different types
of vehicles

Vehicle
features

Road
conditions

Parametric model of energy demand

[4]
Descriptive and analytical model
(without using mathematical model)
[5]
Mathematical model in large scale [6]

Mechanical model [7]

Temperature Types of
asphalt

Types of
driving

Wind
power

Linear programming model [8]

Review of the literature [9]

Experimental evaluation [10]

Modeling of vehicle specication [11]

AVL commercial program [12]

Simulation study [13]

Proposed model

Renewable fuels, different engines

4. Method
We used a mechanical model in this paper to describe the level
of energy used in different vehicles and also the level of carbon
dioxide emitted. This model has been suggested by various modications [4,7,18,19]. The rates of fuel consumption in top-down
models depend usually on the energy demand in road transport
sector. These rates also depend on various factors including
occupancy, speed and length of the trip. These rates measure the
energy efciencies given the current occupancy rate at national
level [7]. When conditions become incomparable, any comparison
of the fuel consumption in different situations will lead to serious
errors, which makes it difcult to get a correct conclusion at local
level [7]. Therefore, the use of the top-down mechanical model
improves qualitative assessments and allows us to compare the
fuel consumption as a result of fundamental and qualitative

changes. It also identies differences in the area [7]. Calculations of

the fuel consumption according to the presented model can be
used as a reference to adjust government subsidies in order to
achieve the goal of energy efciency in vehicles.
Here, a bottom-up mechanical model is considered. At rst, the
fuel consumption is calculated in different parts including the loss
of gravity, acceleration, rolling resistance and aerodynamic resistance. Then, it aggregates the fuel consumption of different parts
together to estimate the total amount. As presented in Table 1, the
existing mechanical models do not consider the parameters such
as temperature, driving type, fuel efciency and asphalt efciency.
However, these parameters are taken into consideration in the
proposed mechanical model. Moreover, the proposed model is
tested under three tolling systems and the effectiveness of different fuels and different types of fuel efciency are examined.

Letter to the Editor / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews ()

Eq. (1) can be expanded as follows:

4.1. Proposed model and assumptions involved

The proposed mechanical model calculates fuel consumption
considering the characteristics of the vehicle, road, driving type,
temperature, wind, type of pavement and the range of fuels from
non-renewable sources to renewable ones. Features for each
vehicle include weight, frontal area, mass correction factor for
rotational inertia acceleration, rotational mass of vehicle, vehicle
speed and acceleration, engine and fuel efciency, along with the
road gradient, the acceleration of gravity, wind effect, aerodynamic
resistance, temperature, type of pavement and the effect of driving. The amount of fuel consumption is given in Eq. (1). This
mechanical model calculates the energy consumed in the vehicle
of type i (trucks, buses, vans and cars), engine j (gasoline, diesel)
and fuel k (gasoline, diesel, LPG, CNG, ethanol, biodiesel) by the
following relation (MJ/vehfuelkm):

Uijk = Ug + Ui + Ur + Ud + Uc

(1)

where Ug is the energy consumed due to loss of gravity, Ui is the

energy consumed due to acceleration, Ur is the energy consumed
due to rolling resistance, Ud is the energy consumed due to aerodynamic resistance and Uc is the energy consumed due to cornering losses.
Fig. 1 shows all the forces acting on the vehicle during the
movement according to fuel consumption in Eq. (1). The movement force Fmovement is the difference between prime mover and all
opposing forces on the vehicle in the movement.

Uijk = L1 mg sin dg + Ci Mfr a di + Cr mg cos t dr s

m2v 4
+ 0.5Af Cd vr 2da + 2 s dc motor ev fuel,

R Cav

(2)

where L denotes the section length traveled (km), m indicates the

vehicle weight (kg), g is the acceleration of gravity (9.8 m/s2), is
the road gradient, dg is the distance traveled for the external forces
(gravitational, km), Ci is the mass correction factor for rotational
inertia acceleration, Mfr is the rotational mass of vehicle, is the
combined effects of vehicle speed and acceleration, a is the rate of
acceleration (m/s2), di is the distance traveled for the external
forces (inertial, km), Cr is the rolling resistance, t is the temperature factor affects of rolling and tires resistance, dr is the
distance traveled for the external forces (rolling, km), s is the type
of asphalt affects of rolling and tires resistance and performance of
tires, is the density of air (1225 kg/m3), Af is the frontal area of
vehicle (m2), Cd is the drag resistance, vr is the relative vehicle
speed taking into account the effect of wind (m/s), da is the distance traveled for the external forces (aerodynamic, km), v is the
vehicle speed (m/s), R is the path radius from center of gravity (m),
Cav is the cornering stiffness, dc is the distance traveled for the
external forces (curve, km), motor is the efciency of the engine, ev
is the wind exposure, and fuel is the efciency of the fuel.
The numerical values of parameters of the proposed model are
given in Table 3.
4.2. Carbon dioxide emission equation
Using Eq. (3), the hot level of carbon dioxide emitted by the
vehicle i, engine j and fuel k, is calculated according to this relation
(g CO2/vehfuelkm):

Cijk = Uijk CEFjk,

Fig. 1. All forces acting on vehicle during the movement.

(3)

where Uijk indicates the level of energy consumed by the

vehicle i, engine j and fuel k, CEFjk denotes the parameter of
emission of carbon dioxide according to the engine j and fuel k,

Table 3
Characteristics for the parameters of the proposed model.
Parameter

Value

Vehicle weight
Acceleration of gravity
Road gradient
Mass correction factor for rotational inertia
acceleration
Rotational mass of vehicle
Driving
Distance application force
Rolling resistance
Effect of Temperature
Type of pavement
Aerodynamic resistance
Frontal area
Vehicle speed is affected by wind
Vehicle speed
Path radius from center of gravity
Cornering stiffness
Vehicle acceleration
Wind effect
Engine efciency
Fuel efciency

2100 (car), 3500 (van), 18,000 (bus), 40,000 (truck).

Varies from 9.78 to 9.82 in terms of altitudea.
0
1.05

The acceleration gravity is for urban areas.

1
0192
0.01
The effect of the temperature range of 0 F to 110 F.
0.29 (asphalt cement), 0.71 (portland cement concrete).
0.35
2.52 (car), 5.13 (van), 8.67 (bus), 7.92 (truck).
20
20
No cornering forces.
No cornering forces.
2.5
1
0.27 (gasoline), 0.4 (diesel).
0.049 (gasoline), 0.037 (diesel), 0.102 (LPG), 0.145 (CNG), 0.333
(ethanol), 0.335 (biodiesel).

Unit

Symbol Resource

m/s2
rad

m
g

Ci

kg

m2
m/s
m/s
m
kN/rad
m/s2

Mfr

d
Cr
t
s
Cd
Af
vr
v
R
Cav
a
ev
motor
fuel

kg

[7]
[20]
[4]

[7]
[19]
Using data from [21]
[19]
[7]

[7]
[7]

[22,23,24]
Using data from [14,15,16,17]

Letter to the Editor / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews ()

namely, 86, 81, 82, 68, 52 and 77, for gasoline, diesel, LPG, CNG,
ethanol and biodiesel, respectively [25].
4.3. Modeling the use of three types of tolling systems
Tolling systems are an inseparable part of road transport system. In this section, three types of tolling system will be studied:
1. Free-ow tolling: In this system, vehicles drive through the toll
plaza without stopping; in other words, without changing their
speed and acceleration.
2. Traditional tolling: In this system, vehicles must complete three
steps: Firstly, they slow down because they have to queue for
paying the toll. Secondly, each vehicle must stop for 3 min. Each
stop increases the emission level of carbon dioxide in diesel and
gasoline engines respectively by 0.05 and 0.06 kg/min [26].
Thirdly, the vehicle speeds up. Some defects of this tolling
system are the loss of time of individuals in travel, congestion,
loss of time for paying cash, mandatory presence of a person in
the toll booth, use of paper to issue the toll payment receipt,
higher fuel consumption and higher production of pollutants
such as carbon dioxide.
3. Electronic toll collection (E-Tolls): This tolling system is one of
the main research topics in intelligent transportation systems
[27]. This system has two general software and hardware
capabilities [28]. The hardware capabilities include an antenna
in the tolling lane, electric barrier to control excessive speed,
tolling lane controller, ETC lane signal light, trafc lights, lane
control camera, vehicles' model identication sensor and their
sorting, electronic toll server, computer network and toll booth.
The software capabilities normally include the software unit of
toll booths [28], customer service system, and methods of toll
payment including pre-paid and monthly payment. In this
system, vehicles complete two stages: First, they slow down,
and then speed up. In this system, because of the use of radio
frequency signals, it is not necessary that a person is present in
the toll booth. Thus, the rate of fuel consumption will be
reduced and fewer pollutants are produced. In addition, no
payment card is required and no need for cash. Therefore,
vehicles are not obliged to queue. In traditional and electronic
tolling systems, toll booths are installed about the middle of the
road. Toll collection system specications are shown in Table 4.

temperature, type of asphalt, impact of the headwind and tailwind,

and use of different fuels. Finally, after determining the pollution
coefcient of each fuel and engine, the carbon dioxide emitted will
be calculated. Fig. 2 shows the energy consumed in four models of
vehicle given different fuels. Since fuel efciency was classied by
three factors of cost, less pollution and non-renewable sources, this
efciency will be lower respectively for biodiesel, ethanol, CNG,
LPG, gasoline and diesel. As it is seen in Fig. 2, the higher the efciency, the lower the fuel consumption would be. However, the
weight of different vehicles and their frontal area would have a
signicant impact on fuel consumption. Fig. 3 illustrates the effect
of carbon dioxide emission parameter according to the type of
vehicle and fuel.
Figs. 46 show the process of carbon dioxide emission in the
three types of tolling systems, respectively:
As can be seen in Figs. 46, in the rst system (free-ow tolling), where the vehicle does not have to change speed or acceleration, the production of carbon dioxide causes lower pollution.
In the second system (traditional tolling), however, the vehicle
must complete three stages, so that the production of pollutants is
strongly higher. For the third system (E-Toll Collection), where
vehicles must perform two stages, the level of pollution is lower
compared to the second system, because vehicles have to slow
down. For example, in a gasoline car, the level of carbon dioxide in
traditional and electronic tolling systems in comparison with the
free ow tolling system is, respectively, 19.15 and 15.26. Also in
this case, the level of carbon dioxide emission in the traditional

5. Experimental results
Consumption of energy in this model is calculated in different
vehicles such as cars, vans, buses, trucks, and by considering
all their specications, road conditions, drivers decision making
conditions according to vehicle speed and acceleration parameters,

Fig. 2. Comparison of the fuel consumption of different vehicles with different

fuels.

Table 4
Specications for all kinds of tolling systems.
Toll system

Parameters

Description

Resource

Free-ow tolling

Constant speed: 27.8 m/s

Distance traveled: 346.5 m
Deceleration stage Acceleration stage Unit
Acceleration
2
2.5
m/s2
Initial speed
27.8
0
m/s
Final speed
0
27.8
m/s
Distance traveled 192.2
154.3
m
Deceleration stage Acceleration stage Unit
Acceleration
2
2.5
m/s2
Initial speed
27.8
8.3
m/s
Final speed
8.3
27.8
m/s
Distance traveled 175.5
140.4
m

In this system, the vehicle continues to drive without speed

change.
In this system, the vehicle completes three stages of slowing
down, stopping, and speeding up.

[7]

In this system, the vehicle completes two stages of slowing

down and speeding up.

[7]

Traditional tolling

Electronic toll
collection

[7]

Letter to the Editor / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews ()

Fig. 3. Comparison of carbon dioxide emitted by different vehicles and using different fuels.

Fig. 4. Carbon dioxide emission process in free-ow tolling systems.

Fig. 6. Carbon dioxide emission process in electronic toll collection systems.

tolling system is greater than that of electronic tolling system.

Therefore, the electronic tolling system reduces fuel consumption
and carbon dioxide emission as it does not have stopping-stage.
The efciency of different fuels, and the percentage of fuel
consumed during the three mandatory stages of the traditional
tolling system are taken into consideration and the obtained
results are presented in Fig. 7.
Fig. 7 indicates that by using fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel, the emission percentage of carbon dioxide in the second
stage of traditional tolling system reaches 0%. Also, by using fuels
such as gasoline and diesel the emission percentage of carbon
dioxide in the second stage of traditional tolling system for car
reaches 5.45% and 5.38%, respectively. Obviously, the use of biodiesel and ethanol will produce less carbon dioxide.
By using fuels such as gasoline and diesel, the emission percentage of carbon dioxide in the second stage of traditional tolling
system for van and car reaches 3.2% and 3.16%, respectively. These
percentages for bus and truck are 0.54% and 0.19%, respectively.
It indicates that as the vehicles become heavier, carbon dioxide
emissions reduce dramatically in the stopping stage.
The Fig. 8 shows the percentage of carbon dioxide emitted in
the two mandatory stages of electronic toll collection system with
six different fuels.
As can be seen in Fig. 8, the rate of carbon dioxide emitted by each
group of vehicles when they slow down or speed up is almost
identical considering different fuels. However, the emission level of
carbon dioxide in vehicles is higher than vans, trucks and buses, and
this is because of certain characteristics such as car weight and
frontal area. In order to reduce the emission of pollutants, we have
solutions such as reducing the weight of cars, the use of air deectors
on frontal area of vehicles or transport means such as buses or vans.

6. Discussion
In this section, we study the sensitivity analysis and the effect of
various parameters on fuel consumption and, subsequently, carbon
dioxide emission. The parameters studied here concern gasoline cars.
6.1. Effect of the vehicle weight

Fig. 5. Carbon dioxide emission process in traditional tolling systems.

The experimental results obtained here indicate that 10% of

the weight of cars, vans, buses and trucks respectively causes a

Letter to the Editor / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews ()

Fig. 11. Reduction of 10% of the speed and acceleration of a car on fuel
consumption.

Fig. 9. Effect of 10% reduction of the vehicle weight on fuel consumption.

Fig. 10. Effect of tailwind and headwind on fuel consumption for cars.

reduction of 2.5%, 2.46%, 2.6% and 2.65% of the fuel consumption as

shown in Fig. 9. For this reason, most automakers have tended to
reduce the weight of parts while maintaining the safety of the
occupants. For example, Ford has opted for the use of aluminum in
the construction of chassis and bodywork. Similarly, the use of
carbon ber to reduce weight was taken into account in Nissan
and Honda companies.
6.2. Effect of the wind direction

Fig. 12. Effect of temperature in cold and warm ranges on the fuel consumption.

6.4. Effect of driving

The speed and acceleration of vehicles are among the most
important parameters of driving [29]. As shown in Fig. 11, the
simultaneous reduction of 10% of these parameters will reduce the
fuel consumption by 8.81% that represents a large reduction in fuel
consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.
6.5. Effect of temperature

Tailwind facilitates the movement of a vehicle and, therefore,

less energy will be consumed. However, headwind requires a
double force to resist against the wind. In article [7], tailwind is
taken less than one while headwind is set greater than one. As for
the neutral wind, that is to say a wind which has no effect on the
vehicle movement, a value of one is taken into account. Fig. 10
shows when the wind force is equal to 0.9, the fuel consumption is
reduced by 10% compared to the neutral state and when the wind
force is equal to 1.1, the fuel consumption will be increased by 10%.

Temperature is an important parameter in the fuel consumption of a vehicle, because it impacts the driver conditions, resistance of tires, the need for fan and heater and seat heaters. Temperature is classied into three ranges: cold range (T o67 F),
warm range (T 487 F) and FTP (Federal Test Procedure) range
(68 FoT o86 F) which is, indeed, the moderate temperature
range [30]. Fig. 12 shows cold and warm ranges increase fuel
consumption respectively by 5.57% and 1.71%.

6.3. Impact of rolling resistance

6.6. Effect of the frontal area and rolling resistance

In general, this coefcient is assumed equal to 0.01 for ordinary

roads. However, by reducing this coefcient about 10%, the level of
fuel consumption will reduce by 0.33%. Thus, it shows that 10%
improvement in this parameter, has a little impact on fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

In case of simultaneous reduction of 10% of the two parameters

of a vehicle frontal area and rolling resistance, the fuel consumption of the vehicle will be reduced by about 1.2% as shown in
Fig. 13. This indicates a relatively small reduction in fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

Letter to the Editor / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews ()

Fig. 14. Effect of simultaneous 10% reduction of mass correction factor for rotational inertia acceleration and acceleration rate on the fuel consumption of cars.

Fig. 13. Simultaneous reduction of 10% of vehicle frontal area and rolling resistance
and its effect on fuel consumption.

6.7. Effect of mass correction factor for rotational inertia acceleration

and acceleration rate
In general, the beginning of movement of a vehicle with high
inertia acceleration increases the fuel consumption. Fig. 14 shows
10% reduction of these two parameters will reduce fuel consumption up to 16.74%. This result indicates that improving this
parameter has a large reduction in fuel consumption and carbon
dioxide emissions.
6.8. Effect of gravitational acceleration
The gravitational acceleration is generally assumed in the calculations of 9.8 m/s2, however, this parameter undergoes a change
of 0.7% over the entire surface of the earth and according to the
height above sea level. This parameter is variable from 9.7639 m/s2
in the mountainous region of Nevada to 9.8337 m/s2 in Peru [20].
As can be seen in Fig. 15, this parameter does not have a great
effect on the nal fuel consumption. Calculations show that when
the acceleration is 9.7639 m/s2, fuel consumption will be reduced
by 0.04%. When the acceleration is 9.8337 m/s2, fuel consumption
will be increased by 0.04%.
6.9. Effect of rolling resistance and wind
In this section, we study the simultaneous effect of wind in its
three types: neutral, headwind and tailwind. Cr parameter in
completely even roads, relatively even roads, gravel and pebble
roads is respectively 0.01, 0.015, 0.010.025 and 0.10.15 [19]. Here
the comparison is between neutral wind and even roads which is
shown in Fig. 16. The results are provided in Table 5 which indicates the increase and reduction of fuel consumption with respect
to destination. The results show obviously that the more uneven is
a road, and the higher will be the fuel consumption.
6.10. Effect of asphalt efciency
Asphalt impacts the fuel consumption due to its friction with
the tire and also the variety of speed and acceleration of a vehicle.
In this paper, to determine the effectiveness of two types of
asphalt PCC (Portland Cement Concrete) and AC (Asphalt Concrete), we took into account several characteristics such as fuel
consumption, cost of production and maintenance, level of noise

Fig. 15. Effect of gravitational acceleration on car fuel consumption.

pollution [21], and we used the analytical hierarchy process (AHP)

technique for this purpose. Fig. 17 shows that fuel consumption
with regards to PCC was 6.21% less than that regarding AC. It
shows that changing the asphalt efciency from AC to PCC has a
signicant effect on reducing the fuel consumption and carbon
dioxide emissions.
6.11. Effect of road gradient
This section deals with the impact of uphill slope of the road
gradient on the fuel consumption. Fig. 18 shows a 10% increase in
the slope of the road gradient, would increase the vehicle's fuel
consumption by 32.81%. Therefore, by reducing the steep road
gradient and vehicle route optimization, fuel consumption can be
reduced and damage to the internal components of the vehicle
such as the engine and gear transmission is prevented.

7. Validity of the proposed model

The fuel consumption data for the gasoline private cars is
implemented to validate the prediction accuracy of the experimental results. The parameters change in the range [
10%, 10%]
and the obtained results are compared with those of existing
methods given in papers [4,7,31]. Also the proposed mechanical
model is veried in terms of accuracy and validity as compared
with papers [4,7,31].
In general, the mathematical mechanical model is based on
various input data. Obviously, by changing the input of the model,
it will produce different outputs and results. However, the signs
and direction of parameters' changes do not change.

Letter to the Editor / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews ()

Fig. 16. Effect of different values of rolling resistance and wind on fuel consumption of a car.

Table 5
Results of sensitivity analysis of the resistance of roll and wind.
Wind

0.9
1
1.1

Cr

0.01

0.015

0.025

0.15

10%
0
10%

%8.52
1.64%
11.81%

5.56%
4.93%
15.43%

31.43%
46.06%
60.64%

Fig.18. The effect of road gradient in fuel consumption.

Fig. 17. Effect of AC and PCC asphalt efciency on fuel consumption of a car.

For instance, in the proposed model, always by increasing

engine efciency fuel consumption is reduced but the amount
depends on the initial data model. Also, by reducing the speed and
acceleration as parameters of driving, fuel consumption reduces.
This is due to the placements, coefcients and power of the
parameters.
In order to placement of new parameters such as temperature,
fuel efciency, driving and asphalt efciency in the initial
mechanical model given in [4,7,15,16,21,2931], one should consider ve segments: the energy consumed due to loss of gravity,
due to acceleration, due to rolling resistance, due to aerodynamic
resistance and due to cornering losses. We performed the statistical analysis and correlation coefcient were examined between
the parameters by SPSS software. To investigate the correlation

coefcient of nominal variables we used Goodman and Kruskal's

gamma method [32]. In general, the correlation coefcients vary
between
1 and 1. If the correlation coefcient is closer to 1,
dependence and correlation between variables is very high [32].
The coefcients for fuel efciency parameter in ve parts of
mechanical model (the energy consumed due to loss of gravity,
acceleration, rolling resistance, aerodynamic resistance and cornering losses) are equal to 0.946, 0.932, 0.919, 0.934 and 0.961,
respectively. This result and the association between the engine
efciency and fuel indicate that the parameter of fuel efciency
should be added to ve parts.
For studying the impact of driving parameter, the coefcients
for ve parts are equal to 0.003, 0.985, 0.008, 0.940 and 0.973,
respectively. As correlation coefcients show, parts that are covering the vehicle speed, acceleration and vehicle speed affected by
wind, are most effective ones. Hence, it affects three parts (the
energy consumed due to loss of acceleration, aerodynamic resistance and cornering losses). The other two parts (the energy
consumed due to loss of gravity and rolling resistance) are not
signicance.
The correlation coefcients for the effect of temperature with
effectiveness priority on the tires and roads are equal to 0.013,
0.009, 0.893, 0.011 and 0.004, respectively. As the results show, the
temperature is signicantly associated with part three (the energy
consumed due to rolling resistance).

Letter to the Editor / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews ()

10

Table 6
All correlation coefcients for new variables of the proposed models.
Five parts of fuel consumption

The
The
The
The
The

energy
energy
energy
energy
energy

consumed
consumed
consumed
consumed
consumed

due
due
due
due
due

to
to
to
to
to

Parameters

loss of gravity
acceleration
rolling resistance
aerodynamic resistance
cornering losses

Fuel efciency

Driving

Temperature

Asphalt efciency

0.946
0.932
0.919
0.934
0.961

0.003
0.985
0.008
0.940
0.973

0.013
0.009
0.893
0.011
0.004

0.010
0.007
0.943
0.009
0.919

Fig. 19. The general trend of changing the parameters in fuel consumption of cars.

The correlation coefcients for the asphalt efciency are equal

to 0.010, 0.007, 0.943, 0.009, and 0.919, respectively. The correlations between asphalt and two parts (the energy consumed due to
rolling resistance and cornering losses) are so signicant. For
greater clarity, Table 6 shows all correlation coefcients for new
variables and ve parts of the mechanical model.
The schematic presentation of validation for all parameters in
the sensitivity analysis is shown in Fig. 19.

8. Conclusion
A new mechanical model was proposed to simulate the fuel
consumption and carbon dioxide emissions of vehicles. In the
proposed model, new parameters such as temperature, driving
style, asphalt and fuel efciency were introduced and their effectiveness were analyzed along with the existing parameters in fuel
consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. Then, we used the
proposed mechanical model to model the emission level of carbon
dioxide, taking into account several parameters such as fuel and
engine efciency, temperature, type of asphalt, characteristics of
vehicle such as weight, frontal area, vehicle speed, vehicle acceleration and wind effect. The obtained results indicated that a 10%
improvement in engine efciency reduces fuel consumption up to
9.09%. Factors such as vehicle weight, road gradient, wind direction, fuel efciency, frontal area, driving and acceleration rate,
temperature and type of asphalt had the greatest effects. For
example, 10% reduction in the truck's weight can reduce fuel
consumption up to 2.65%. Moreover, changing some factors such
as the gravitational acceleration and the rolling resistance had a

little effect on the amount of fuel consumption and carbon dioxide

emissions. For example, 10% reduction at car's rolling resistance
can reduce fuel consumption up to 0.33%.
Furthermore, the effect of three types of tolling systems,
namely, free-ow, traditional tolling and electronic toll collection
(ETC) have been veried by considering different fuels. The results
indicated that fuel consumption is higher in a traditional tolling
system as compared to ETC, because of the change in speed and
acceleration of the vehicle. Thus, a larger amount of carbon dioxide
will be produced in traditional tolling systems. Overally, the
amount of fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emission in the
electronic tolling system is twice less than the amounts emitted in
traditional tolling system. The carbon dioxide of traditional tolling
system for car considering non-renewable fuels such as gasoline
and diesel in stopping stage are 5.45% and 5.38%, respectively. If
renewable fuels such as ethanol and biodiesel are used by higher
efciency, carbon dioxide emissions in stopping stage will reach
to zero.
The advantage of the proposed model is to evaluate different
factors affecting fuel consumption. It is appropriate for roads by
limited changes in vehicle speed and acceleration. Also, this model
is not appropriate for mountain and meandrous roads.
There are some other issues that should be considered in future
studies. The amount of humidity has a great effect on tires performance, and driver performance with changes in temperature
and humidity, frequent changes in speed and acceleration rate of
the vehicle are very important subjects for future research.
Another topic for future study is to consider the effect of sunroof
and its inuence on the changes in wind power. This is very
important as automakers and consumers are interested in this

Letter to the Editor / Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews ()

kind of cars. Finally, internal factors such as the lack of clean air
lter and the lack of clean vehicle pile can be used in future
research.

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Mehrsa Ehsani, Abbas Ahmadin, Dawud Fadai

Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Systems,
Amirkabir University of Technology (Tehran Polytechnic), Tehran, Iran
E-mail addresses: mehrsa.ehsani@aut.ac.ir (M. Ehsani),
abbas.ahmadi@aut.ac.ir (A. Ahmadi), fadaid@aut.ac.ir (D. Fadai)
Received 3 August 2014
20 May 2015
23 August 2015

Corresponding author. Tel.: 98 21 6454 5394; fax: 98 21 6695 4569.