Teaching Life-Cycle Perspectives: Sustainable Transportation Fuels Unit for High-School and Undergraduate Engineering Students Susan E. Powers, M.ASCE 1 ; J. E. DeWaters 2 ; and M. Z. Venczel 3 Abstract: Classroom units were developed for high-school environmental science and college industrial ecology classes to introduce life- cycle perspectives and systems analysis of transportation fuel/vehicle systems. The units at both levels emphasize the need to consider energy and environmental issues related to the nation’ s transportation sector that extend well beyond the gasoline pump and vehicle emissions. The units include several lessons to introduce environmental issues, understand the fuel and vehicle technologies (high-school level only), and conceptually and quantitatively evaluate differences among the expected future fuels through a life-cycle assessment. The quantitative assess- ment of the high-school students shows that the units helped students to significantly raise their energy knowledge and change their attitudes. Anecdotal information from the students indicates that the increased awareness about the seriousness of energy issues has caused them to be more conservative and conscientious about their energy consumption behaviors. The evaluation of the class in the 2009–2010 academic year (AY09) was excellent, suggesting that the addition of the life-cycle assessment activities described in this paper were well received by the students. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)EI.1943-5541.0000059. © 2011 American Society of Civil Engineers. CE Database subject headings: Engineering education; Energy consumption; Energy efficiency; Energy sources; Transportation management; Life cycles; Sustainable development; Students; Undergraduate study. Author keywords: Engineering education; Energy consumption; Energy efficiency; Energy sources; Transportation systems; Life-cycle assessment. Introduction Converting transportation fuels to biofuels, electricity, or hydrogen is touted by many as a solution to the nation’ s growing energy cri- sis, which includes a waning supply of oil, global climate change, and increased health effects attributable to poor air quality in most major cities. But are these new fuels really viable and sustainable solutions? The hydrogen or biofuel economy and current efforts to “electrify” transportation systems must be understood and ad- dressed. This will require analysis at a broad systems perspective before one can ask society to readily accept new fuel and vehicle technologies. Preparing engineering students to assess these types of problems is necessary as they move into a profession that has similar complex and highly interdependent systems. Americans use about 380 million gal. of gasoline every day, for a total of 138 billion gal. (17% of total U.S. energy consump- tion) in 2008 [U.S. Energy Information Association (U.S. EIA) 2010]. This fuel is required to power 249 million vehicles that travel an average of 12,000 mi per year. The combustion of petro- leum fuel is not sustainable. It contributes both to the depletion of a nonrenewable resource and the increase in the mass of fossil-based greenhouse gases (GHGs) that are accumulating in the atmosphere. In 2008, the U.S. transportation sector was responsible for the emissions of 1,785 Tg CO 2 equivalents (eq.) (U.S. EPA 2010). This represents 31% of the total GHG emissions from the United States and 5.9% of the total global GHG emissions. Federal initiatives and regulations related to fuel use have affected vehicle fuel and efficiency standards for decades. Some of these efforts have been very effective toward reducing the envi- ronmental effects of the transportation sector. For example, tetra- ethyl lead is no longer used in the United States. It has been banned since 1996, but it was phased out starting in 1976 because of its incompatibility with the newly required catalytic converters. Since lead was removed from gasoline, the concentrations of lead in soil and airborne particles have significantly decreased. But later efforts to add oxygenated compounds to gasoline to reduce air emissions through the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments lead to the addition of methyl-tert butyl ether (MTBE) to gasoline and the rapid and widespread contamination of groundwater aquifers with MTBE (Zogorski 1997; Franklin et al. 2000). This additive is quite soluble in water relative to other gasoline constituents and is difficult to biodegrade. Thus, it is highly persistent in groundwater systems (Powers et al. 2001). Problems with MTBE highlighted the need to consider a broader systems perspective when evaluating trans- portation fuels to avoid unintended consequences. With the passage of the 2007 Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA 2007) in the United States, there is currently significant effort to understand and assess the scope of the potential conse- quences as the nation transitions to a greater dependence on ethanol as a fuel additive. EISA requires that the United States produce 1 Professor, Clarkson Univ., Institute for a Sustainable Environment, 8 Clarkson Ave., Potsdam, NY 13699-5715 (corresponding author). E-mail: sep@clarkson.edu 2 Ph.D. candidate, Clarkson Univ., Institute for a Sustainable Environ- ment, 8 Clarkson Ave., Potsdam, NY 13699-5710. E-mail: dewaters@ clarkson.edu 3 Ph.D. candidate, Clarkson Univ., Institute for a Sustainable Environ- ment, 8 Clarkson Ave., Potsdam, NY 13699-5710. E-mail: venczemz@ clarkson.edu Note. This manuscript was submitted on March 18, 2010; approved on October 8, 2010; published online on January 24, 2011. Discussion period open until September 1, 2011; separate discussions must be submitted for individual papers. This paper is part of the Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, Vol. 137, No. 2, April 1, 2011. ©ASCE, ISSN 1052-3928/2011/2-55–63/$25.00. JOURNAL OF PROFESSIONAL ISSUES IN ENGINEERING EDUCATION AND PRACTICE © ASCE / APRIL 2011 / 55 Downloaded 07 Jul 2011 to 128.153.10.246. Redistribution subject to ASCE license or copyright. Visit http://www.ascelibrary.org