Newswise — New tool compares costs and benefits of alternative fuels and vehicle technologies.

Many fleet managers are looking at alternative fuels and advanced vehicle technologies to reduce their environmental footprint and save money. The AFLEET Tool, and its newly launched web-based version, AFLEET Online, developed by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, can help fleets optimize their purchasing decisions to do exactly that.

AFLEET — short for Alternative Fuel Life-Cycle Environmental and Economic Transportation — is a free, publicly available spreadsheet-based tool that calculates and compares the costs and environmental benefits of a broad range of alternative fuels and vehicle technologies. It also accommodates all vehicle types, from passenger cars and pickup trucks to buses and freight trucks.

We’re helping decision makers understand the environmental and cost impacts of alternative fuels and vehicle technologies for their specific applications. AFLEET and its new online companion version provide a comprehensive and easier way to make those decisions.” — Andrew Burnham, Argonne environmental scientist

Launched in 2013AFLEET is ideally suited for fleet and transportation project managers who need to compare vehicle technologies for petroleum use, emission reductions, air quality benefits and economic payback.

Every fleet is going to be a little bit different,” said Andrew Burnham, an Argonne environmental scientist who designed the tool. ​We’re helping decision makers understand the environmental and cost impacts of alternative fuels and vehicle technologies for their specific applications. AFLEET and its new online companion version provide a comprehensive and easier way to make those decisions.” 

The new AFLEET Online is a user-friendly web-based option for calculating emissions of 18fuels/vehicle technologies. It also provides a simple payback calculator that compares the purchase and annual operating costs of a new alternative fuel and advanced vehicle to its conventional counterpart.

AFLEET is based on Argonne’s flagship life-cycle analysis tool, the Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions and Energy use in Transportation (GREET) model. Developed by the DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Integration program, the AFLEET tool has more than 8,000 users, ranging from those in charge of fleet purchases to those in industry, academia, government, and nonprofits, such as Clean Cities coalitions.

AFLEET and AFLEET Online are sponsored by DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Vehicle Technologies Office and are available at https://​afleet​-web​.es​.anl​.gov/.

DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy supports early-stage research and development of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies that make energy more affordable and strengthen the reliability, resilience, and security of the U.S. electric grid.

Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology. The nation’s first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities, and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific problems, advance America’s scientific leadership and prepare the nation for a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, visit the Office of Science website.