Buses ensure environmentally friendly mobility

Transcription

1 Buses ensure environmentally friendly mobility Lecture by Wolfgang Fahrnberger Chairman of the Management, NEOMAN Bus GmbH

2 Ladies and gentlemen, As Chairman of NEOMAN Bus the bus unit of MAN Nutzfahrzeuge AG I am very pleased to be able to explain to you the importance of buses for safeguarding environmentally friendly mobility. However, the term environmentally friendly mobility doesn t really tell the whole story in my opinion, as sustainable mobility, or future-viable mobility, also involves taking into account the economic and social parameters of future developments, along with ecological considerations. In my presentation today, I will talk about the necessity and significance of buses for future-viable mobility, along with the possible technologies that may be used in this regard. Among other things, mobility involves the possibility of carrying out activities of whatever kind at different locations. MAN and NEOPLAN buses Contents Traffic and transport, on the other hand, refer to the actual change of location of people or goods. Much or little traffic and internal and external costs result from the number of participants in the traffic and transport system, as well as the number of roads and transport modes and routes. The amount of time spent on transport is also becoming more and more important, especially when transport and traffic volume increase above the level that roads and other transport infrastructure can handle. The result is congestion and traffic jams. We re all aware of this from our experience in our cities and on our highways. Various studies have concluded that up to 12 billion liters of fuel are wasted in traffic jams in Germany every year. And according to a study conducted by the automobile association ADAC, the annual cost of traffic jams in Germany totals approximately 100 billion. Now I don t want to play the arbiter of morality here; I don t want to appeal to your sense of reason by telling you to rely less on passenger cars or planes and instead use what can rationally be considered the most environmentally sound means of transport buses. Traffic jam Primary energy consumption That s because each mode of transport has its own particular use to which it s best suited by reason of its physical properties, size, range, versatility, and energy and environmental balance. Not even the most ecologically minded person would think of rowing to America, but when you consider energy consumption and pollutant emissions, particularly in connection with global warming, you have to conclude that the tax break granted to jet 2

3 fuel doesn t make any sense. In terms of the distortion of competition through cheap carriers, especially for short-range routes, you could even say that governments have totally failed here. Average external costs I m certain that all those involved know very well that visible success in the area of future-viable mobility can only be achieved if the truth about costs plays a major role in the comparison of modes of transport. Reasons why environmentally friendly and future-viable mobility is necessary Health hazards (diesel particulates, nitrogen oxides, ozone) Climate hazards (greenhouse gases) Environmental hazards (NOx, SO 2 ) The finite nature of fossil fuels and the expected development of prices for such fuels The limited amount of space available for vehicle traffic (congestion/parking spaces) Causes A look at passenger car sales in the world s two most populous countries as compared to the figures for the EU will give you an idea of what we can expect to happen if the rapid development of the past few years continues, or even accelerates, and these countries catch up with Europe. It is therefore crucial for us in Europe as well that these countries accelerate the implementation of measures promoting futureviable mobility and not just for reasons of competition. One thing is certain here: We need a solution on the global level. World s two most populous countries (double click) Here is a picture showing the estimated level of fossil fuel reserves. These are average levels arrived at through data taken from various sources. Time will tell whether or not these figures are accurate. Nevertheless, we should use them as a basis for future development strategies. Reserves of fossil fuels The next picture shows a chart depicting the development of the price of crude oil. Although prices are currently being affected by various political crises, they will probably never again fall below 40 dollars per barrel. Future-viable mobility the demands to be placed on modes of transport and land-use and traffic planning Low internal and external costs overall Development of oil price 3

4 Conservation of resources in production and operation Use of renewable energy sources to power drive systems Minimal pollutant and greenhouse gas emissions Conservation of space Reliability in terms of time spent by users What has been achieved to date with buses in terms of environmentally friendly mobility? My spontaneous response to such a question would be that buses not only represent the most economical mode of transport and take up the least amount of space in relation to the number of people they move, but are also among the best transportation systems when it comes to pollutant emissions. The noisy, exhaust gas-spewing bus is in fact a thing of the past. Futureviable mobility the demands to be placed on modes of transport and land-use and traffic planning Lion's Regio This opinion is influenced by what we as bus manufacturers are now developing, what we offer on the market, and what bus operating companies have been demanding over the last few years as a result of public pressure. However, the next picture shows that the average age of the bus fleet has increased over the last few years. What s more, according to a 2005 report issued by the Federal Motor Transport Authority, nearly half of all buses do not fall into any emission reduction category, and only around 20 percent meet the Euro 3 standard or a higher standard. And although the number of lower-emission buses increased by approximately seven percent at the beginning of 2006, this development was mainly due to local public transport companies making greater use of such buses. In the total VDV fleet of 26,000 buses at the beginning of 2005, only ten percent of the vehicles were at Euro 1 or lower, but 45 percent met the Euro 3 standard or higher, and 42 percent of the buses were equipped with a CRT filter. At the beginning of 2006, the percentage of buses meeting the Euro 3 standard or higher had risen to 53 percent, while only two percent were at Euro 1 or lower. I doubt whether any other country in the world can boast such figures. At the same time, the relatively high number of non-emissionreduced vehicles in the fleet illustrates that the approach of giving tax breaks to vehicles meeting the Euro 5 standard before that standard goes into effect or giving such vehicles some other type of special treatment and thus putting the recently stipulated E4 at a disadvantage is not the right method. Federal Motor Transport Authority VDV fleet This is especially true when one considers the reduction in pollutant emissions already achieved when comparing the so- 4

5 called Euro 0 engines with Euro 4 engines. Here, it would make more sense to promote the removal of Euro 0/Euro 1 vehicles from the road by offering a type of disposal bonus. This would serve to eliminate more than 80 percent of the pollutant emissions from a Euro 0 vehicle. Euro 1-5 bar graph It would also mean that the bonuses and tax breaks would be coordinated with the legally stipulated deadlines, thereby leading to reliable development phases. The EU has already created enough problems by not coordinating the deadline for the introduction of emission limits from the EU Ambient Air Quality Directive with EU emission limits for heavy-duty commercial vehicles. Several other countries have taken similarly erroneous steps in this area. Euro 4 has long since ceased to be a challenge for German manufacturers. NEOMAN delivered the first buses meeting the E4 standard in mid-2005 before the standard went into effect and mass production of the buses began early this year. NEOMAN will skip over Euro 5 for local public transport buses and along with the EEV natural gas engines that have been around for quite some time will also introduce the EEV standard for local public transport buses. This will be done for the D08 engine as early as the end of Q1 2007, and for the D 20 Motor toward the end of All of this will be accomplished with engine-internal solutions. EEV engine performance stages Unfortunately, a war of words has broken out (without MAN s involvement) regarding which system is better in other words, the engine-internal solution or the AdBlue solution. I can t understand this conflict, because from what we know today, Euro 6 will have to involve a combination of both systems. The solution that uses exhaust gas recirculation is naturally more difficult to develop, but it does offer tremendous advantages in terms of weight and space. When combined with the good fuel economy of the D20 engine, such a solution would offer associated benefits to our customers, who will ultimately base their decision on the availability of AdBlue, fuel prices, the weight of different systems, and the amount of space they take up. I can only say: Let fair competition decide the outcome. Future-viable mobility additional developments in the areas of bus engines, fuels and emissions At MAN and NEOPLAN, we now use diesel engines that can be retrofitted for CNG, LPG and hydrogen. We believe that diesel technology will remain the key technology over the medium term. If not for the finite nature of fossil fuels Overview of engines 5

6 and their expected increase in price, we would have no problem with simply further improving diesel engines. Such is not the case, however, and so we must search for alternative fuels and ways to increase engine efficiency. In terms of emissions, fuel cell buses that run on hydrogen are unbeatable, as are buses equipped with hydrogen combustion engines provided the hydrogen used as fuel is produced from renewable sources. That shouldn t be a problem, however, considering the amount of such fuel required for city buses. The next illustration shows CO 2 emission levels for individual fuels and the manner in which the fuels are produced. Here you can see the benefits I just mentioned about hydrogen. Note that the yellow portion of the bars represents the emissions generated by producing and distributing the fuel. A greater problem with hydrogen is its low energy density. Turbo-charged MAN hydrogen engines now achieve up to 200 KW, which is sufficient for city buses. As part of an EU project known as HyFLEET:CUTE, which is currently under way, MAN is delivering 14 hydrogen buses to the BVG transport company in Berlin. The buses delivered to date are operating to BVG s complete satisfaction. MAN has in fact successfully tested hydrogen buses with combustion engines over a total of 500,000 km in normal service operations since A second-generation MAN hybrid fuel cell bus is also now being tested to promote the development of fuel cells. The vehicle s brake-energy recovery system has made it possible to downscale the fuel cell from 120 KW to 68 KW. Although this still falls short of the type of economical solution we re looking for, it nevertheless marks a major step in the right direction. The results achieved with the DE hybrid drive system in Nuremberg were so positive that we now plan to continue in this direction. In the best cases, the combination of the drive system with an automated stop-start transmission was able to reduce fuel consumption by up to 25 percent. This system can also be combined with other drive systems, of course. Fuel strategy The share of fuel produced using petroleum will decrease. In order to reduce CO 2 emissions, fuels from renewable energy sources will have to account for the greatest possible share of all fuel produced. Synthetic fuels made from biomass, natural gas and coal offer the greatest potential in terms of the amount of fuel that Hydrogen production Exhaust gas emissions from H 2 combustion engine City buses' contribution to total C0 2 emissions HyFLEET:CUTE Hybrid fuel cell bus DE Hybrid city bus in Nuremberg Ultracap storage Fuel strategy 6

7 can be produced. Diesel technology will remain the key technology over the medium term for reducing CO 2 emissions (engine with the highest efficiency level). Optimization of new combustion methods with synthetic fuels. Because of its low energy density, hydrogen can only be used in the transport sector with vehicles that travel short distances (city buses, local delivery vehicles). Conclusions drawn from the fuel strategy Total reserves of fossil energy sources will last into the far future. Production from fossil resources, especially non-conventional fossil resources, will make these fuels increasingly expensive. Reducing CO 2 emissions will become more and more important. Synthetic fuels made from biomass (BTL) and hydrogen must be used as extensively as possible. Synthetic fuels and hydrogen especially offer great potential for substantially reducing emissions of all exhaust gas components. Fuel strategy Fuel picture slide strategy picture slide The importance of buses for environmentally friendly and future-viable mobility systems Buses offer their greatest advantages in the areas of local public transport, leisure time and holiday transport, and normal operating service in large countries with poor infrastructure. To ensure that buses continue performing these functions or even perform them better as traffic density continues to rise in major metropolitan areas in the future, governments will have to create conditions that make public transport attractive. This could involve measures to reduce travel times and make schedules more reliable, such as the introduction of special bus lanes like those used in many South American and Asian countries with the BRT system. Other possibilities include satellite-supported traffic guidance systems for preventing traffic jams and enabling motorists to avoid them, and traffic lights partially controlled by buses. Even more effective, however, would be to focus the spotlight on coordinating land-use and traffic planning in a manner modeled BRT BRT 7

8 on the decentralized concentration method for combining utility supply infrastructure and residential development into compact residential areas with a high quality of life, attractive recreational areas nearby, and good local public transport services. The basic requirements with regard to coordinated land-use and traffic planning are: Preventing traffic in order to improve mobility for everyone Transferring necessary traffic and transport to the most environmentally friendly and promising modes of transport Transferring necessary traffic and transport to the most economical modes of transport In view of the long period of time it will take to revamp infrastructure, residential structures and vehicle fleets, it is clear that we must begin refocusing our strategy now. Buses used for local, inter-city and long-distance transport are already among the most environmentally friendly, economical and safest means of transport. The development work being conducted by major bus manufacturers will help to make environmentally friendly and future-viable mobility possible. As Eberhard von Kuenheim said: Requirements of coordinated landuse and traffic planning Requirements of coordinated landuse and traffic planning Starliner from behind Starliner from behind The mobility of people and goods is not the result of our prosperity but rather its foundation. In this spirit, here s to a shared future! MAN MAN 8