Environmental Impact of Hybrid Cars - Essay Example

Environmental Impact of Hybrid Cars Over the years the engineering field and in particular the mechanical engineering field have made tremendous development in terms of technology. This has included the invention of cars and better machines in the automotive field. As these advancements are being made, there has been an increased concern on the environmental impact of such developments. Therefore the creators of such machines have had to modify their creation to reduce the environmental impact of their use. This is what is commonly referred to as the eco-friendly inventions. Among such inventions is the Hybrid (electric) cars specifically meant to reduce the amount of pollution caused by the traditional cars by replacing the fuel with fuels other than the ‘traditional petroleum products’ (such as wind, solar or electric batteries). The hybrid cars works using two motors: one fueled by gasoline and the other is an electric motor. There has however been concerns of the use of this technology in reducing the impact of global warming, with differing views being held that the Electric Vehicles( EV) cause more harm than good. The issue stems from the production of the cars and the energy consumption to the emission of the cars and the disposal of the batteries used (Gerstenfeld et al., pg. 22). However both sides of the opposing team agree that the technology being used actually reduces the Global Warming Potential contribution by the transport sector. The purpose of this paper is therefore to reconcile these diverse opinions and find common ground on the opposing viewpoint with regard to the environmental impact of the hybrid electric cars. The hybrid vehicles were initially introduced in the automotive industry following the high pollution that was being produced by the petroleum product fueled vehicles and the increase concerns in global warming. The structure of the car in itself is designed to produce very low/no emissions into the air. However the overall impact of the production of these vehicles and their subsequent disposal into the environment has been less eco-friendly than it was thought initially. The issue of concern is that the hybrid cars create more problems by solving the environmental impact of the conventional cars. This concern for those who contradict the benefits of the EVs is based on the supply chain of the vehicle and most especially the production of the car. The supply chain includes the production phase, the usage phase and the disposal phase (Hawkins et al., 2002). The production impact of the EVs is greater than the benefit they offer at their use phase. The claim is that the production of the battery itself is not ecofriendly given the high level of carbon emission of up to 215kg C (Beliveau et al., pg.17): hybrid vehicles use batteries made out of nickel which are more toxic than the lead batteries when they are being produced. Hawkins et al (2002) asserts that the production process of the hybrid cars increases the global warming potential (GWP) that is double the contribution of the conventional cars. Some of these hybrid cars solely use electricity that is more expensive to produce. The impact of the production is quite significant especially in regions where the electricity is produced using sources that increase the carbon emission to the environment such as coal or oil (Hawkins et al, 2002). The amount of energy that is consumed in the production process is also very high. Another concern is the end life stage of the EVs with regard to the disposal of the batteries. Hawkins et al (2002) notes that the hybrid vehicles can be toxic to the human body and the environment: from the disposal of the metals. The batteries are made of nickel metals which if are not properly disposed, can cause negative impact on the environment. The presence of nickel products in the environment could cause acidic rain which could potentially destroy plants and make water unsafe for drinking (Gerstenfeld et al.) creating a health hazard. These materials in the environment could toxic to people. Those that counter the argument of the environmental benefits of the hybrid cars base their opinions on the impact of the production process of the EVs and the final disposal of the batteries and the materials assembled for its production which if due diligence is not made, can prove to be dangerous to the environment. Unlike the conventional cars whose production process contributes close to 10% of its contribution to the global warming potential impact, the hybrid cars’ impact on global warming potential in concentrated on its production phase (Hawkins et al., 2002). The technology used in the construction of the hybrid car is a highly sophisticated with the use of two motors to power the car. This therefore would require an expensive set of materials to assemble and produce. The production of these materials and their subsequent assembly requires a good deal of energy thus increasing the energy consumption levels which could be detrimental to the environment (Beliveau et al, pg. 13) especially for those EVs that are purely fueled by electricity. This would especially be harmful for areas that use sources with high carbon emissions such as coal to generate electricity. It would also be true that hybrid cars have increased the negative impact on the environment than they have reduced the GWP contribution in the event that the batteries are disposed wrongfully. The presence of these harmful products on the soils is also dangerous to the vegetation. There could also be chances that the EVs do not eradicate harmful emissions at the usage stage because the most common hybrid cars use electric-gasoline motors, which also emits carbon when being used. The amount of carbon emissions in the air is largely contributed by the transportation industry approximately a third of the total emissions is due from cars. The hybrid car was therefore built to reduce the amount of carbon emissions to the environment by the conventional cars. The replacement of the petroleum products fuels with less dangerous fuels has significantly reduced the emissions due from cars. The hybrid system uses a two motor system (an electric and combustion engine) the most common one being a combination of gasoline and electric powered engine. This is primarily to improve the fuel economy. This technology ensures that the amount of carbon emitted is reduced. The hybrid not only improves fuel efficiency but the maintenance costs associated with the batteries. The amount of emissions using the hybrid cars is approximately less by 25% to 35%. The technology with which the hybrid car is designed is meant to reduce the fuel consumption of the car (Pavan, pg.61) especially during the time the car is idle by automatically turning off the engine when the car comes to a stop. The battery also has the capacity to store energy that can be reused up later. This low fuel consumption significantly reduces the amount of energy that is consumed with regard to the production of more fuel as is the case in conventional cars. The engine has also been proven to significantly reduce the amount of noise from the engine compared to the gasoline fueled cars (Pavan, pg. 62). The hybrid car also has operational advantage over the conventional cars in the amount of emissions that it produces. The final disposal of the used batteries need not create an environmental havoc as they can be recycled and the alkaline levels reduced before disposal. Since the usage phase produces less carbon emissions and reduces the GWP contribution by cars, then it would be logical to say that hybrid cars have achieved the goal for which they were introduced into the market. The point of diversion of the two arguments lies on what phase of the life cycle of the EVs is being considered. However there seems to be a common agreement that the hybrid cars do actually reduce the amount of carbon emissions within the transport sector. In the last phase of the EVs life cycle, the disagreement is in the choice of disposal methods of the already used batteries. This argument on both sides is weak as the disposal of the batteries can be controlled and effectively managed. The production process of the hybrid cars is also agreed by both viewpoints that it is expensive and sophisticated and hence the high energy consumption levels. However, the high consumption only poses an environmental challenge to the extent that the source of the energy used is from harmful products such as the coal. This is subjective to the region of production. In the event that the EVs are made from natural gas then the environmental impact is minimized. It would therefore be impossible to quantify and harness the environmental benefits of EVs in all regions and conditions. Therefore to improve on the environmental impact of the hybrid cars on all phase levels, from production, usage phase and disposal stage it would be prudent to use environmentally friendly energies and recycle the batteries after their life cycle. References Read More