5 Ways the Freight Sector Can Save Billions of Gallons of Fuel
Filed Under: green automotive technology, GreenBigTruck on March 24, 2010
by Aaron Turpen, GreenBigTruck
The freight transportation sector accounts for 25% of the total U.S. transportation sector’s emissions and fuel usage and about 8% of total emissions in the country. Freight fuel and emissions use (as a percentage of the whole) has climbed at three times the rate of passenger travel. There are three main freight transportation sectors that account for the majority of the fuel use in America. They are, in order of their fuel use and emissions:
- Shipping and portage
- Heavy trucks and dockside/warehouse machinery
- Trains, aircraft, and other vehicles
Each of these sectors can clean up their act and save millions of gallons of fuel each, contributing to an overall reduction in the use of foreign petroleum fuels by many millions of barrels. Each of those three can benefit from upgrades to the following two additional sectors:
- Logistics
- Diesel engine efficiency improvements
Shipping and Portage
The major ports in the United States are already undergoing huge (and costly) measures to upgrade to newer, cleaner technologies and systems for lowering emissions and cutting or eliminating usage of fossil fuels. The ports of California, for instance, have been undergoing stages of CARB-mandated plans to eliminate port side emissions almost entirely by 2025. Others around the nation are following suit.
Shipping, however, is one of the world’s largest polluters with one giant cargo freighter being equivalent to thousands of passenger cars or hundreds of 80,000 pound big trucks in emissions. These ships are slowly undergoing changes to become more efficient. Some are installing solar to reduce their engine loads, using higher-grade fuels, towing kites to help propel the ship, and more. Towing kites alone, according to both German and Japanese tests, have shown to reduce fuel usage by as much as 35% per year, saving thousands in fuel costs.
Uses of other technologies in port-side shipping (tugs, small vessels, etc.) include hydrogen fuel cells, plug-in hybrid tugs, and more reliance on renewable bio-fuels to power the vessels.
Heavy trucks and dockside/warehouse machinery
Other improvements are reductions in idle times with truck stop “comfort island” installations (Idle Air and others), the increased use of alternative power units (APUs) on rigs, improvements to refrigerated and other trailer tech, and so forth. Finally, tires and inflation automation technologies are also gaining widespread use.
Warehouse machinery is becoming more and more efficient as well with many companies opting to use electric, fuel-cell, or clean gas-burning equipment rather than gasoline, diesel, or other, more polluting options. More efficient use of warehouse space, docking procedures, and more are also improving efficiency.
Trains, aircraft, and other vehicles
Rail yards and engines themselves are using more efficient methods of moving materials, equipment, and so forth while train engines are seeing improvements to diesel engine efficiency and life spans, the introduction of new technologies to replace diesel, and the more wide spread use of alternative fuels to petroleum diesel.
Aircraft are seeing design improvements to improve efficiency in the air, many airports are now using anti-engine idling procedures such as tow goats, and many airlines are now experimenting with biologically-based (renewable) fuels from various sources. Improvements in passenger handling to reduce empty seating are also raising efficiencies.
Logistics
Perhaps the primary improvement to happen to all freight transportation in the U.S. came with the widespread use of computer technologies to improve logistics. Most trucking, shipping, rail, and other forms of freight transport are now using computers to plot the most efficient means of routing and transporting goods.
Things are not perfect, of course, and could always use improvement.
Diesel engine efficiency improvements
Most diesel engines in use today for land-based transportation are more efficient than the average gasoline engine in a passenger vehicle. They emit less, get better miles per gallon when compared pound-for-pound in freight weight, and last much longer by both miles driven and hours in service. Despite all these improvements, however, there are still 
new technologies coming that trump even these.
Hybridization, hydrogen fuel-cells, compressed gases, zero-emissions diesel fuels and engines, bio-fuels such as biodiesel, and more are all in development right now – many are already being fielded in test vehicles today.
Conclusion
With all of these improvements will come still more ideas for further efficiency increases. The trucking, shipping, and other cargo transportation sectors are continuing to be the forefront of technology in pound-for-pound efficiency. Emissions reductions in the cargo transport sectors will mean great reductions of emissions in the U.S. overall.
The future continues to look more and more clean and environmentally-friendly with fewer particulates, less waste, and better lives for everyone.
