As means to promote energy security and mitigate climate change, utilization of biofuels has become attractive in recent years. Their local production from biomass resources etc. isolate them from political disruptions in the international market and boost the national security by lowering a country’s reliance on petroleum imports. Biofuel utilization in Ghana is still in the nascent stage, though policies like the Renewable Energy Act encourages its application in the energy sector. Hitherto, the transport sector is void of biofuels and remain entirely dependent on conventional fuels. To elucidate the benign effects of biofuels over conventional fuels under the ambient conditions in Ghana, empirical analysis was conducted using a physics-based vehicle model. The model incorporated both the clean fuels and the fossil fuels to assess their respective impacts. The model output highlighted the environmental benefits of using biofuels as increasing bioethanol blend from 10 to 85% and 100% reduced fossil-based CO2 emissions by 8% and 87% respectively with E100 having no fossil emissions when gasoline was used as the base fuel. Similarly, use of B10 and B50 biodiesel blends instead of pure diesel fuel downsized fossil CO2 emissions by 6% and 48% respectively. Biofuels can therefore ameliorate the transport sector by downsizing the total emissions associated with this sector.

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Comparative Study of Conventional and Biofuels for Sustainable Mobility: A Case Study of Ghana

  • Janet Appiah Osei,
  • Satyanarayana Narra,
  • Rabani Adamou,
  • Amos T. Kabo-Bah

摘要

As means to promote energy security and mitigate climate change, utilization of biofuels has become attractive in recent years. Their local production from biomass resources etc. isolate them from political disruptions in the international market and boost the national security by lowering a country’s reliance on petroleum imports. Biofuel utilization in Ghana is still in the nascent stage, though policies like the Renewable Energy Act encourages its application in the energy sector. Hitherto, the transport sector is void of biofuels and remain entirely dependent on conventional fuels. To elucidate the benign effects of biofuels over conventional fuels under the ambient conditions in Ghana, empirical analysis was conducted using a physics-based vehicle model. The model incorporated both the clean fuels and the fossil fuels to assess their respective impacts. The model output highlighted the environmental benefits of using biofuels as increasing bioethanol blend from 10 to 85% and 100% reduced fossil-based CO2 emissions by 8% and 87% respectively with E100 having no fossil emissions when gasoline was used as the base fuel. Similarly, use of B10 and B50 biodiesel blends instead of pure diesel fuel downsized fossil CO2 emissions by 6% and 48% respectively. Biofuels can therefore ameliorate the transport sector by downsizing the total emissions associated with this sector.