Abstract
CO2 emissions and fuel consumption reduction in road transportation has become
one of the most relevant concerns either for governments, OEMs and final users,
especially fleet owners and managers, led mainly by global warming and rising
fuel prices concerns. For vehicles driven by internal combustion engines (ICE) the
fuel consumption rates are directly related to CO2 emissions, the latter being a
consequence and an efficiency indicator. A wide variety of solutions have arisen
to overcome this challenge ranging from hybridization to changes in the vehicledesign
looking for more aerodynamic profiles, to solutions like eco-driving
courses for drivers or the usage of alternative fuels such as biofuels. All of these
solutions vary in technical complexity, implementation costs and terms. One
proven cost-effective way to reduce the fuel consumption is the use of low
viscosity oils (LVO) in order to reduce the engine inner friction, reducing by this
way the amount of energy required to move the engine parts resulting this in a fuel
consumption reduction. This paper presents a study where the effect of the use of
LVO on urban transport buses on the CO2 fleet spot and fuel consumption, based
on a comparative test where 39 buses worked for nearly a year separated in two
groups each of them carrying either LVO or standard viscosity oils.
