Co2 emission monitoring and evaluation of public utility vehicles based on road grade and driving patterns: An Internet of Things application

High concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere has negative impacts on the environment and adversely affects the health of the public. In the Philippines, the transport sector specifically public utility vehicles (PUVs) dominantly contribute to the overall CO2 emission (CO2e) due to its engines' low efficiency. Moreover, the road grade and driving behavior such as the speed, and acceleration among these vehicles significantly affect the variability of its contribution to the overall CO2e. Thus, an Internet of Things (IoT) monitoring system using onboard facilitative mobile sensor networks was installed in PUVs for wireless data collection to quantify the said variability of emission given some of its indicative variables. The collected data resulted in the difference in CO2e at around 33% between uphill roads and downhill roads, 16% to 27 % between downhill and flat roads, and 10% to 20% between flat and uphill roads. Moreover, the speeds around 40 km/h to 50 km/h have emitted lowest CO2 when compared to slower speeds. With this, CO2e of PUVs has clearly affected with the road grades and driving patterns. The result may be used as a reference for in-depth characterization in reducing CO2e in the Philippine transportation sector.