IGS: Current and Recent Graduate Research
Jian Liu
Decarbonizing the Chinese road transport sector: policy options and potential effects of hybrid and electric pathways
Supervisor(s):
Contact Info:
- Email: jian.liu@ouce.ox.ac.uk
- Tel: +44 (0)7894207181
Academic Profile
Jian Liu is a D.Phil. (Ph.D) student in the Transport Studies Unit (TSU) at the School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford. His MSc research was in the field of the application of intelligent transport system for vehicle emission reduction and now he concentrates on the researches of low carbon vehicle fuels and technologies and their effects on greenhouse gas alleviation in road transport sector.
Current Research
Transport currently accounts for 14% of global greenhouse gas emissions, to which road transport alone contributes 76%. Any substantial reduction in carbon emissions from road transport will largely rely on the implementation of advanced low-carbon vehicle/fuel systems. As the largest single market over the world and the rapid car ownership increase rate, the reduction of CO2 emissions from road transport in China has vast potential opportunities to which my thesis will devote considerable attention. Research on low-carbon vehicle / fuel systems for China is receiving increasing attention from the government, academia and the private sector. However it is still inadequate to formulate feasible and effective policy recommendations and specifically, the collective research integrating lifecycle assessment and corresponding policy formulation for alternative vehicle fuels development has not been systematically taken in China. Jian Liu's research aims to integrate private and external cost estimates of various vehicle / fuel options and aims to identify the appropriate low-carbon development pathway(s) for China road transport through a break-even analysis including the consideration of environmental effects.
His research focuses on four vehicle / fuel systems: biomass-based fuels for internal combustion engine vehicles; hydrogen (produced from renewable energy) for fuel cell vehicles; hybrid electric vehicles and pure battery electric vehicles. The quantitative life cycle carbon emission assessment will be made for each system, where the well to pump of fuel cycle, pump to wheel of fuel cycle and vehicle cycle are simulated by GREET 1.8b, ADVISOR and GREET 2.7 respectively.
Based on private and external costs, a break-even analysis will be made to compare vehicle / fuel systems. The payback periods (or distances) of alternative vehicle / fuels systems under the "business as usual" scenario will be identified via break-even points, based on which the appropriate policy options having potential effects on shifting consumers' behaviour will be formulated. The overall future carbon savings and corresponding costs for each proposed policy option will then be portrayed through the simulation of carbon emission modelling and incremental cost evaluation.
Research Interests
Transport emission reduction and urban air quality improvement through low carbon vehicle fuels and technologies are his interested fields. He is now looking forward to integrating the life cycle emission modeling and the economic assessment to formulate the fuel taxation proposals for alternative vehicle fuels.
His other interests include low emission vehicles and alternative fuels; vehicle / fuel taxation; traffic modelling with miro / macro simulation; traffic flow theory; sustainable transport strategies; vehicle emission and air quality forecasting; and highway alignment design and driving behaviour forecasting.