Ground transportation

The ground transportation industry in the US A is dominated by truck freight (78.6%). Other methods of transportation inelude rail (7.9%), water (5.2%), air (4%), pipeline (2.2%), and other (2.1%). Solvents are used and solvent wastes and emissions are generated during refurbishing and maintenanee. 

Truek maintenanee work usually requires a parts washer which may involve either a heated or ambient temperature solvent, hot tank, or a spray washer. In the solvent tank washer, solvent (usually mineral spirits, petroleum distillates, and naphtha) is recirculated from solvent tank. Spent solvent is usually replaced monthly. Carburetor cleaning compounds contain dichloromethane. Tanker cleaning often involves a solvent spray. 

The ground transportation industry employs a large number of people (more than 2 million in the USA). It is one of the less polluting industries. It generates 0.3% of VOC released by all major industries combined (about half of fliat of flie aerospaee industry). Most solvents used are of low toxicity. Good system of eolleetion and reelamation of solvent wastes is done effeetively and this is the maj or reason for the relatively good perfonnanee of the industry. 

1 EPA Office of CompUaiice Sector Notebook Project. Profile of the Ground TranspOTtation Industry. Trucking, Railroad, and Pipeline. US Enviromnental Protection Agency, 1997. 

2 EPA Office of Compliance Sector Notebook Project. Sector Notebook Data Relresh - 1997. 

---

The automobile ascended to dominance in North America starting in the 1920s, and in Europe by the 1950s. After World War II, most nonauto ground transport in the United States rapidly disappeared. The decades following World War II saw vast reductions in train travel, bus service, and public transportation systems in major cities. 

In ground transportation, the push for advanced-performance materials has been less dramatic because cost is the discriminator in the selection of components and systems. However, incremental improvement in automotive materials has been substantial in many areas, particularly in structural steels and plastics. 

Niobium alloys are components of experimental supermagnets that are being tested to drive super-fast forms of ground transportation. 

For example, Airbus Industries ABD 0031 and Bombardier SMP 800-C are industry specifications that place limits on the amount of toxic gases that may be generated in the NBS smoke chamber by materials used in aircraft and ground transportation vehicles, respectively. Part 2 of Annex 1 to the IMO FTP Code places limits on the amount of toxic gases that may be generated in the ISO 5659-2 single smoke chamber method by materials used in ships. ISO 5659-2 specifies the same chamber and smoke meter as ASTM E 662, but uses a scaled-down version of the cone calorimeter heater. The gas concentration limits for these three methods are given in Table 14.1. 

Hessian, R.T., Jr., and M. Myriski. 2005. IX Waste Ground Transportation Risk Assessment, Rev. 0, May 2. Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. U.S. Army Chemical Materials Agency. 

Mortimer, D. (2005). Wartime critical care ground transport problems. Retrieved March 27, 2007 from http //I3I.I58.7.207/cgi-bin/tsnrp/search tudies.cgi id=268. 

High-Speed Ground Transportation Oversight. Hearing before the Subcommittee on Surface Transportation of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate, One Hundred Second Congress, Second Session, August 6,1992. 

Hsu, P.C. and Weng, P.S., Radiation exposure during air and ground transportation. Health Phys. 31 (1976)522-524. 

Railroads and related services passenger ground transportation... 

Railroads and related services passenger ground transportation Motor freight transportation and warehousing Water transportation ... 

---