Energy Consumption and Emissions Modeling of Individual Vehicles

This study demonstrated an approach to modeling individual vehicle second-by-second fuel consumption and emissions on the basis of vehicle operations. The approach used the Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES)–Matrix, a high-performance vehicle emissions modeling system consisting of a multidimensional array of vehicle emissions rates (pulled directly from EPA’s MOVES emissions model) that could be quickly queried by other models to generate an applicable emissions rate for any specified on-road fleet and operating conditions. For this project, the research team developed a spreadsheet-based MOVES-Matrix calculator to simplify connecting vehicle activity data with multidimensional emissions rates from MOVES-Matrix. This paper provides a walk-through of the calculation procedures, from basic vehicle information and driving cycles to second-by-second emissions rates. The individual vehicle emissions modeling framework was incorporated into Commute Warrior, a trademarked travel survey application for Android smartphones, to provide real-time fuel consumption and emissions rate estimates from concurrently obtained GPS-based speed data.