{"id":336,"date":"2014-11-12T01:17:57","date_gmt":"2014-11-12T01:17:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/faculty.engineering.ucdavis.edu\/ginn\/?page_id=336"},"modified":"2014-11-19T01:20:28","modified_gmt":"2014-11-19T01:20:28","slug":"multimedia-risk-assessment-for-alternative-fuels","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/faculty.engineering.ucdavis.edu\/ginn\/projects\/multimedia-risk-assessment-for-alternative-fuels\/","title":{"rendered":"Multimedia Risk Assessment for Alternative Fuels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Multimedia Risk Assessment for Alternative Fuels<\/strong><\/p>\n

Current Funding:\u00a0 California Air Resources Board, <\/strong>Multimedia Risk Assessment for Alternative Fuels: Guidelines Development, and application to developing alternative fuels in California (co-PI with Thomas McKone, UCB; Dave Rice, ret. LLNL), ~1M$, 2006-2015.<\/p>\n

Students<\/strong>\u00a0 Numerous; work was pioneered by doctoral student then postdoctoral associate Tyler Hatch.<\/p>\n

Collaborators:<\/strong> Staff from California regulatory agencies CARB, DTSC, EPA, OEHHA, and CWRB.<\/p>\n

Project Summary<\/strong>.\u00a0 As required by Section 43830.8 California Health and Safety Code, before adopting new fuel specifications, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) must provide a \u201cmultimedia assessment\u201d of these new fuels.\u00a0 Under this project the California Air Resources Board with input from the co-PIs and Collaborators listed has prepared guidelines (MMAG_FINAL.pdf<\/a>) for \u201cmultimedia\u201d evaluations of new fuels\u00a0 entitled \u201cGuidance Document and Recommendations on the Types of Scientific Information to be submitted by Applicants for California Fuels Environmental Multimedia Evaluations.\u201d This document was prepared to assist the California EPA\u2019s Multimedia Working Group (MMWG) in making decisions about new fuel specifications.<\/p>\n

\"threetiers\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tiered Assessement strategy forming the basis for our approach.<\/em><\/p>\n

We are currently or recently involved in application of the multimedia evaluation that we designed, to Biodiesel, Renewable Diesel, E85, Natural Gasoline Liquids, DiMethyl Ether (DME), Compressed Natural Gas, and ongoing fuels development.\u00a0 Sometimes as in the case of DME we work with fuel proponents (Oberon, Inc.) and in some instances we represent the State during respecification of a fuel (compressed natural gas).\u00a0 For example, our group provided the technical support for formal multimedia risk assessment for biodiesel, renewable diesel, and E-85 in California. Biodiesel is the name of an alternative diesel-equivalent fuel, derived from biological sources (such as vegetable oils), which can be used in unmodified diesel-engine vehicles. Biodiesel is made through a chemical process called transesterification whereby the glycerin is separated from the fat or vegetable oil. The process generates methyl esters (the chemical name for biodiesel) and glycerin as well as other byproducts (washwater, water, free fatty acids) and residual reactants (e.g., methanol).\u00a0 The multimedia risk assessment involves a three-tiered strategy for prioritizing and estimating impacts of import, production, transport, use, and storage of the materials involved in manufacture, distribution and use of this fuel in the state.\u00a0 Biodiesel rulemaking incorporated the results of our analyses.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Important Publications on this Topic:<\/strong><\/p>\n