LIFE CYCLE EMISSIONS FROM CARS USING AVAILABLE FUELS- THE AUSTRALIAN SITUATION

Of the Australian passenger fleet of 10.4 million vehicles, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), which is readily available throughout the country, powers 225,700. Australia also has an equivalent number (295,700) of diesel vehicles under 3.5 tonnes, primarily four-wheel drive vehicles [1]. The full fuel cycle of atmospheric emissions (known as exbodied emissions) incorporates emissions involved in manufacturing and transporting the fuel, as well as the emissions involved in combusting the fuel. Exbodied emissions of dedicated OEM LPG cars are less than those of equivalent cars using unleaded petrol for greenhouse gases, hydrocarbons, oxides of nitrogen, and particulate matter. Diesel vehicles emit less greenhouse gases and carbon monoxide, but more particulate matter. As standards decree lower emission limits, vehicle manufacturers and catalyst manufacturers will find it harder to comply. This means that it will be harder to optimise a vehicle to produce low emissions for two separate fuels. We conclude, however, that dedicated LPG vehicles will be able to maintain both lower tailpipe emissions, and lower exbodied emissions, than petrol vehicles