PROJECT TITLE :

Energy Consumption and Emission Rates of Highway Mowing Activities

ABSTRACT:

Mowing the highway right-of-means (ROW) is very important for the security of roadway users and for maintaining highway infrastructure. This paper reports fuel usage and exhaust emission rates from on-board measurements of 12 diesel tractors operated in real-world mowing conditions by the New York State Department of Transportation. The operating conditions and therefore the mower type were the dominant variables determining space-based fuel consumption necessities. Fuel consumption rates were consistent across the different conventional tractor mowing equipment (sickle bar, flail, and rotary mowers), with a median fuel-consumption ± standard deviation of 5.one ± a pair of.three kg-fuel/ha roadside space mowed. Mowing over the guiderails, using a giant tractor and a small cutting head, demanded a mean fuel-consumption ± commonplace deviation of 44 ± 15 kg-fuel/ha, which is sort of 10 times as a lot of fuel per unit space than other standard mowing activities. Fuel-based mostly emission factors (g-emission/kg-fuel) higher reflect the difference across tractor technologies in terms of emission rates of criteria pollutants [e.g., carbon monoxide (CO), hydrocarbon (HC), nitrogen oxide (NO), and particulate matter (PM)]. Fuel-primarily based emission factors measured from the in-use tractors compared quite well with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) NONROAD emission factors and confirmed the effectiveness of the U.S. EPA nonroad standards to lower emissions from agricultural tractors. The analysis presents ways for estimating fuel usage and emissions from mowing activities and makes observations regarding mitigating the environmental impact of mowing activities. Study results can assist in higher procurement of applicable size tractors to yield each fuel savings and emissions advantages.