Comprehensive review on emissions modeling of construction and mining equipment

Abstract

Construction and mining operations generally include off-road equipment working in a load and dump point and a fleet of trucks cycling between these points. The equipment used in such operations consumes large amounts of fuel and produce various air pollutants, which have negative effects on the environment. This issue necessitates the need of reducing the emissions from these operations due to their negative impacts on the environment. Reduction may be via either improvement in technology or management of the operations. In this paper, previous studies on the fuel-based emissions of construction equipment are reviewed and evaluated. Additionally, some research involving the modeling and simulation of these operations is noted. At the end, the optimum points of cost and emission for varying fleet sizes in a case study (this includes an earthmoving operation involving a loader and a variety of trucks) are compared, and suggestions are made for future studies.