Application feasibility assessment for the carbon emission trading system of railroad sector in Korea: Environment and economic of GHG reduction technology

초록

Since 2015, the carbon emission trading system has been introduced domestically in Korea. Generally, railroad is low carbon emission source among transport modes, but a large amount of energy for railcar operation are mainly consumed. In 2010, the total energy consumption of railroad sector was about 440 thousands TOE and total GHG emission was about 2,060 thousands ton CO2e. The GHG reduction technologies of railroad sector are largely divided into the improvement of energy efficiency and the replacement of clean energy. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the environment and economics of GHG reduction technologies to investigate the application feasibility of railroad sector at the carbon emission trading system in Korea. For the economic assessment, we estimated the marginal abatement cost (MAC) and the payback period of GHG reduction technology using initial investment cost, energy reduction cost, the amount of GHG reduction, and the life cycle of technology. Also, the amount of GHG reduction was considered as a parameter for the environment assessment. As a result, the energy metering system of railcar showed the lowest MAC and the highest GHG reduction. In addition, the application of solar energy at railroad station had effective MAC although initial investment cost is high. Therefore, if the carbon emission credit can be produced by the application of GHG reduction technologies, the railroad operating company will be able to join in the Korean emission trading system (K-ETS).