Tyres are carbon – why don’t we realise?

This link is another good seminar from ‘Freight in the City’ on how we reduce pollution in short-ish run semi-urban vehicles.

The link to the previous article mentioning hydrogen’s problems is here.

And this is the link to Profesoor Alan McKinnon’s statement that tyres are carbon creating. The black carbon particles from tyre wear are in fact, directly a greenhouse gas.

That means we not only have to minimise fossil fuels but also tyre use. That further means public road transport automatically reduces tyre wear and rail travel even more.

I suggest that we need ‘green’ electric rail everywhere – on a passenger free to travel basis at least within 20 miles of departure as a start.

Professor McKinnon also highlighted so called cargo cycles – where bicycle/electric power takes care of ‘final mile’ local deliveries – as beneficial – and studies in Portugal have shown that Co2 can be reduced by as much as 72% in consequence. Indeed for me there is even a local example.

Probably too, the shortage of HGV drivers is also an opportunity to push much more goods traffic onto rail – also on a subsidised basis and perhaps also on a basis of the first twenty miles free too… An agreed rate of tonnes per mile should be possible in order to encourage local supply rather than an international one.(I’m tempted to suggest that EU suppliers should be prioritised). Of course we would need a functioning Freightliner network in order to facilitate this.

This chart below is from Tevva Motors, which although a private company seems to be pretty on the ball, so I’m confident in offering their slide on Hydrogen efficiency (click to enlarge) and which is rather clearer than my previous effort:

Don’t forget that the hydrogen cell is formulated to produce electrical energy. The idea of using hydrogen in an internal combustion engine, (which I confess I’d hoped for) is, I understand, a a long way off – if indeed possible at all..

So hydrogen sounds green but at least currently, really isn’t.

Lets hope Cornwall’s lithium is plentiful and easily transportable…

I asked about battery recycling and recovery (about 1 hr and 5 minutes in) and it turns out that partially exhausted batteries can be used for allegedly static purposes. (I’ve no idea what these are, but I suggest they are also available for things like fork lift trucks where charging is never far away and weight is essential for counterbalance).

So gradually we come to a scheme where we have electric vehicles that are beneficial, but we don’t want them to shed their tyre wear over too long a distance. But the same Freight in the City session shows that the government plan for greening transport – allegedly the first in the world – is as it is now released, while full of good intentions, very sadly lacking in proper scalable concrete proposals.

That is something I’ll try to look over in due course…

Comments

    1. Peter May -

      Thanks for that – now I know!

  1. brian faux -

    Although brake dust is not a known global warmer it is definitely a pollutant. An electric car could have totally electric brakes – which would also cut down weight as discs are pretty solid-wonder if that will ever get the safety go-ahead?
    It`s a real killer trying to deliver those King Size mattresses on my trike….

    1. Peter May -

      I’m sure eventually with regenerative braking as the norm we’ll be able to have discs as the emergency solution!

  2. Pingback: Capitalist transport really doesn’t work – Progressive Pulse

Comments are closed.