IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v14y2021i11p3079-d562187.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Propulsion Systems for Heavy-Duty Transport Applications

Author

Listed:
  • Sam Simons

    (Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK)

  • Ulugbek Azimov

    (Faculty of Engineering and Environment, Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST, UK)

Abstract

To meet climate change challenges, the UK government is aiming to reach zero emissions by 2050. The heavy-duty transportation sector contributes 17% to the UKs total emissions, so to combat this, alternative power units to traditional fossil fuel-reliant internal combustion engines (ICEs) are being utilized and investigated. Hydrogen fuel cells are a key area of interest to try and reduce these transportation emissions. To gain a true view of the impact that hydrogen fuel cells can have, this study looks at the impact the manufacturing of a fuel cell has upon the environment, from material extraction through to the usage phase. This was done through the use of a lifecycle assessment following ISO 14040 standards, with hydrogen systems being compared to alternative systems. This study has found that whilst fuel cells depend upon energy intensive materials for their construction, it is possible to reduce emissions by 34–87% compared to ICE systems, depending upon the source of hydrogen used. This study shows that hydrogen fuel cells are a viable option for heavy-duty transport that can be utilized to meet the target emissions reduction level by 2050.

Suggested Citation

  • Sam Simons & Ulugbek Azimov, 2021. "Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Propulsion Systems for Heavy-Duty Transport Applications," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-18, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:11:p:3079-:d:562187
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/11/3079/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/14/11/3079/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sebastian Wolff & Moritz Seidenfus & Karim Gordon & Sergio Álvarez & Svenja Kalt & Markus Lienkamp, 2020. "Scalable Life-Cycle Inventory for Heavy-Duty Vehicle Production," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-22, July.
    2. Olivier Bethoux, 2020. "Hydrogen Fuel Cell Road Vehicles and Their Infrastructure: An Option towards an Environmentally Friendly Energy Transition," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-27, November.
    3. Aritra Ghosh, 2020. "Possibilities and Challenges for the Inclusion of the Electric Vehicle (EV) to Reduce the Carbon Footprint in the Transport Sector: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-22, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Renjie Wang & Yuanyuan Song & Honglei Xu & Yue Li & Jie Liu, 2022. "Life Cycle Assessment of Energy Consumption and CO 2 Emission from HEV, PHEV and BEV for China in the Past, Present and Future," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-16, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sebastian Wolff & Svenja Kalt & Manuel Bstieler & Markus Lienkamp, 2021. "Influence of Powertrain Topology and Electric Machine Design on Efficiency of Battery Electric Trucks—A Simulative Case-Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-15, January.
    2. Jiaming Zhou & Chunxiao Feng & Qingqing Su & Shangfeng Jiang & Zhixian Fan & Jiageng Ruan & Shikai Sun & Leli Hu, 2022. "The Multi-Objective Optimization of Powertrain Design and Energy Management Strategy for Fuel Cell–Battery Electric Vehicle," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(10), pages 1-19, May.
    3. Lucian-Ioan Dulău, 2023. "CO 2 Emissions of Battery Electric Vehicles and Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles," Clean Technol., MDPI, vol. 5(2), pages 1-17, June.
    4. Mauro Zucca & Vincenzo Cirimele & Jorge Bruna & Davide Signorino & Erika Laporta & Jacopo Colussi & Miguel Angel Alonso Tejedor & Federico Fissore & Umberto Pogliano, 2021. "Assessment of the Overall Efficiency in WPT Stations for Electric Vehicles," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-19, February.
    5. Anam Nadeem & Mosè Rossi & Erica Corradi & Lingkang Jin & Gabriele Comodi & Nadeem Ahmed Sheikh, 2022. "Energy-Environmental Planning of Electric Vehicles (EVs): A Case Study of the National Energy System of Pakistan," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-19, April.
    6. Jelena Loncarski & Vito Giuseppe Monopoli & Giuseppe Leonardo Cascella & Francesco Cupertino, 2020. "SiC-MOSFET and Si-IGBT-Based dc-dc Interleaved Converters for EV Chargers: Approach for Efficiency Comparison with Minimum Switching Losses Based on Complete Parasitic Modeling," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-20, September.
    7. Gianluca Valenti & Stefano Murgia & Ida Costanzo & Matteo Scarnera & Francesco Battistella, 2021. "Experimental Determination of the Performances during the Cold Start-Up of an Air Compressor Unit for Electric and Electrified Heavy-Duty Vehicles," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-14, June.
    8. Isabel C. Gil-García & Mª Socorro García-Cascales & Habib Dagher & Angel Molina-García, 2021. "Electric Vehicle and Renewable Energy Sources: Motor Fusion in the Energy Transition from a Multi-Indicator Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-19, March.
    9. Yuanliang Liu & Yinan Qiu & Zhan Liu & Gang Lei, 2022. "Modeling and Analysis of the Flow Characteristics of Liquid Hydrogen in a Pipe Suffering from External Transient Impact," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-12, June.
    10. Tao Zhang & Ningyuan Guo & Xiaoxia Sun & Jie Fan & Naifeng Yang & Junjie Song & Yuan Zou, 2021. "A Systematic Framework for State of Charge, State of Health and State of Power Co-Estimation of Lithium-Ion Battery in Electric Vehicles," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-19, May.
    11. Shubham Mishra & Shrey Verma & Subhankar Chowdhury & Ambar Gaur & Subhashree Mohapatra & Gaurav Dwivedi & Puneet Verma, 2021. "A Comprehensive Review on Developments in Electric Vehicle Charging Station Infrastructure and Present Scenario of India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-20, February.
    12. Ki-Beom Lee & Mohamed A. Ahmed & Dong-Ki Kang & Young-Chon Kim, 2020. "Deep Reinforcement Learning Based Optimal Route and Charging Station Selection," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(23), pages 1-22, November.
    13. Gábor Horváth & Attila Bai & Sándor Szegedi & István Lázár & Csongor Máthé & László Huzsvai & Máté Zakar & Zoltán Gabnai & Tamás Tóth, 2023. "A Comprehensive Review of the Distinctive Tendencies of the Diffusion of E-Mobility in Central Europe," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-29, July.
    14. Emigdio Chavez-Angel & Alejandro Castro-Alvarez & Nicolas Sapunar & Francisco Henríquez & Javier Saavedra & Sebastián Rodríguez & Iván Cornejo & Lindley Maxwell, 2023. "Exploring the Potential of Green Hydrogen Production and Application in the Antofagasta Region of Chile," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(11), pages 1-12, June.
    15. Gustavo Pinto & Joaquim Monteiro & Andresa Baptista & Leonardo Ribeiro & José Leite, 2021. "Study of the Permeation Flowrate of an Innovative Way to Store Hydrogen in Vehicles," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-16, October.
    16. Ibrahim M. Hezam & Arunodaya Raj Mishra & Pratibha Rani & Fausto Cavallaro & Abhijit Saha & Jabir Ali & Wadim Strielkowski & Dalia Štreimikienė, 2022. "A Hybrid Intuitionistic Fuzzy-MEREC-RS-DNMA Method for Assessing the Alternative Fuel Vehicles with Sustainability Perspectives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-32, May.
    17. Ali Saadon Al-Ogaili & Ali Q. Al-Shetwi & Thanikanti Sudhakar Babu & Yap Hoon & Majid A. Abdullah & Ameer Alhasan & Ammar Al-Sharaa, 2021. "Electric Buses in Malaysia: Policies, Innovations, Technologies and Life Cycle Evaluations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(21), pages 1-22, October.
    18. Oscar Lagnelöv & Gunnar Larsson & Anders Larsolle & Per-Anders Hansson, 2021. "Life Cycle Assessment of Autonomous Electric Field Tractors in Swedish Agriculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(20), pages 1-24, October.
    19. García, Antonio & Monsalve-Serrano, Javier & Lago Sari, Rafael & Tripathi, Shashwat, 2022. "Life cycle CO₂ footprint reduction comparison of hybrid and electric buses for bus transit networks," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    20. Waruna Maddumage & Malika Perera & Rahula Attalage & Patrick Kelly, 2021. "Power Management Strategy of a Parallel Hybrid Three-Wheeler for Fuel and Emission Reduction," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-30, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:14:y:2021:i:11:p:3079-:d:562187. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.