Freight CO2 equivalent when electrified

[Legolash2o]

Hi,

I'm currently using 25.7grams per tonne.km to figure out the co2 emissions for a train.

Does anyone know or at least know a source for how much a freight train would use per tonne.km if it was electric please? The train itself would be 0 but it'll get the energy from the grid which in turn will have emissions.

Possibly NOx and PM as well.

Thanks.

 

[hwl]

Hi,

I'm currently using 25.7grams per tonne.km to figure out the co2 emissions for a train.

Does anyone know or at least know a source for how much a freight train would use per tonne.km if it was electric please? The train itself would be 0 but it'll get the energy from the grid which in turn will have emissions.

Possibly NOx and PM as well.

Thanks.

It very much depends whether you assume grid average or the carbon intensity of NR's actually sourced traction electricity which is an order of magnitude lower.

25 is also way to high for diesel...

 

[Legolash2o]

Thanks for the reply.

The value I chose was from an 2020 ORR emissions report.

I think the NR sourced one would be the most accurate one to use.

 

[zwk500]

The equation changes slightly if you account for regenerative braking - this is effective zero-carbon electricity (but is a very small amount of the power needed). NR does, I believe, pay EDF for the equivalent energy it uses to be produced by Nuclear power stations. Obviously, the actual power drawn from the grid could have been produced by any station connected to the grid, so as ever it's almost impossible to put a 'true' figure on CO2 emissions.

And that's before I mention that most freights are top-loading, so an electric freight will need assistance at the terminal.

 

[Legolash2o]

The equation changes slightly if you account for regenerative braking - this is effective zero-carbon electricity (but is a very small amount of the power needed). NR does, I believe, pay EDF for the equivalent energy it uses to be produced by Nuclear power stations. Obviously, the actual power drawn from the grid could have been produced by any station connected to the grid, so as ever it's almost impossible to put a 'true' figure on CO2 emissions.

And that's before I mention that most freights are top-loading, so an electric freight will need assistance at the terminal.

At the moment and I'm just trying to keep it at basic as possible before I start going into more complex stuff.

 

[HSTEd]

25 is also way to high for diesel...

I don't th ink it is.

AAR trumpet they can get about 470 ton miles to the US gallon, and that includes a lot of powder river drag freight that moves incredibly slowly.

470 ton miles is about 686 tonne kilometers.

Burning a US gallon of diesel produces about 9.9kg of CO2.
So it works out like 14g/tonne-km.

I think 25 is a reasonable estimate considering our relatively high train performance (intermodal dominated market) and lighter train weights.

EDIT:
This report is very long, but Appendix A suggests that many intermodal runs in the US manage much lower fuel efficiencies, and certainly lower than the average, on average

 

[themiller]

For a live value, look at ‘electricityMap’ which is a free app available for iOS. You can see the current CO2 equivalent for many countries. You’ll need to do a bit of maths and make some assumptions but you should be able to get somewhere near.

 

[Bald Rick]

The Network Rail Traction Decarbonisation Network Strategy is your friend.