Evaluation of On-Site Fuel Use and Emissions over the Duration of a Commercial Building Project

AbstractCommercial construction operations are heavy users of nonroad equipment and diesel engines. These engines are large contributors of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other engine-based pollutants and consume large quantities of diesel fuel. This paper presents a case study to identify construction activities that cause the most emissions and fuel use on a construction project and to determine when and where these occur. The paper links emissions and fuel use of construction activities with a project schedule to establish a temporal relationship. RSMeans was used to obtain equipment productivity. Equipment emission rates and fuel use rates were obtained from the EPA’s NONROAD Model. A sensitivity analysis was conducted to investigate the effect of changes in scheduling, equipment size, and EPA engine tier on emissions and fuel use. Site construction activities proved to be the heaviest polluters and caused a significant spike in emissions early in the project. Further study is recommended to validate the tr...

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