Transport System Challenges

What Transport System Challenges covers

Transport System Challenges is examined in Unit A2 1, Building and Managing a Sustainable Future, a written examination. It covers four key challenges for future transport, new vehicle technologies and their infrastructure, bioethanol production and the heat energy of ethanol, biodiesel and the biofuel debate and strategies to reduce transport demand.

The 5 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

• Four key challenges for future transportEconomic viability, environmental impacts, dependence on fossil fuels and user safety, whole life-cycle impacts, particulates from electric vehicles, energy security, aviation and shipping, battery safety and assessing electric buses.Open →
• New vehicle technologies and their infrastructureBattery electric, hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles, regenerative braking, charging infrastructure and rapid chargers, charging time and emissions calculations, hydrogen vehicles and refuelling, biofuelled vehicles and E10.Open →
• Bioethanol production and the heat energy of ethanolBioethanol crops and industrial production, starch hydrolysis, fermentation and its equation and conditions, distillation and dehydration, esterification, an ethanol yield calculation, and measuring the heat energy of ethanol.Open →
• Biodiesel and the biofuel debateTransesterification of vegetable oil, the sodium hydroxide catalyst, filtering, glycerol separation and washing, excess methanol, the advantages and disadvantages of biodiesel, oil palm, land use in developing countries and indirect land-use change.Open →
• Strategies to reduce transport demandPublic transport with a per-passenger emissions calculation, the Belfast Glider, walking and cycling, fuel and vehicle taxation, congestion charging, air travel levies, videoconferencing, apps and which approaches work best.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Transport System Challenges further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Hybrid electric vehicle vs Plug-in hybrid

  Hybrid electric vehicle: a car whose small battery is charged only by its engine and braking. Plug-in hybrid: a car with a larger battery that can be charged from the mains.

• Fermentation vs Distillation

  Fermentation: the conversion of sugars into ethanol and carbon dioxide by yeast. Distillation: the separation of ethanol from water using their different boiling points.

• Rapid charger vs Home charger

  Rapid charger: a direct-current supply of 50 kW or more for fast top-ups on a journey. Home charger: an alternating-current supply of about 7 kW suited to overnight use.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What are the four key challenges in developing a future system for moving people and goods?

   Model answer

   The four challenges are user safety, environmental impacts, economic viability and dependence on fossil fuels. A successful transport system must meet all four at once.

2. 2

   What does economic viability mean for a new transport technology?

   Model answer

   A viable technology is affordable to buy, run and maintain compared with existing options. The supporting infrastructure must also be paid for, by users, companies or government.

3. 3

   Why do new vehicle technologies struggle to compete on cost at first?

   Model answer

   Early models are made in small numbers, so the cost of each vehicle is high. Petrol and diesel vehicles benefit from mass production and an existing fuel network.

4. 4

   How can governments improve the economic viability of cleaner vehicles?

   Model answer

   Governments can offer purchase grants, lower vehicle taxes and fund charging or refuelling networks. Higher taxes on polluting fuels also narrow the cost gap.

5. 5

   What are the main environmental impacts of road transport?

   Model answer

   Road vehicles emit carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulates, which harm the climate and air quality. Roads also take land, fragment habitats and create noise.

6. 6

   Why must a vehicle's environmental impact be judged over its whole life cycle?

   Model answer

   Emissions arise in making the vehicle and its fuel, not only from the exhaust. A battery car has no tailpipe emissions, but mining metals and making the battery have impacts.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Transport System Challenges revision questions

What does Transport System Challenges cover in CCEA A-Level Environmental Technology?

5 subtopics: four key challenges for future transport, new vehicle technologies and their infrastructure, bioethanol production and the heat energy of ethanol, biodiesel and the biofuel debate and strategies to reduce transport demand. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Transport System Challenges organised?

By the CCEA 3930 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.