Review of life cycle greenhouse gases, air pollutant emissions and costs of road medium and heavy‐duty trucks

Abstract

The desired energy transition to guarantee net-zero greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions needs to take place in every sector of the global economy. The transport sector is responsible for a large share of energy consumption and GHGs emissions while contributing to the increase in air pollution. Although new technologies are available, the use of diesel in road transport is still predominant. These new technologies, nonetheless, still present inconsistencies in their environment, economic performances and do not necessarily provide improvements when considering the entire fuel life cycle used in medium and heavy-duty trucks. This systematic review addresses the uncertainties in life cycle studies regarding the road transport sector fuel consumption, GHGs, and air pollutant emissions economic analyses. Results show that there are higher chances of reducing GHGs emissions through biogas or fuel-cell hydrogen trucks, while PM 2.5 and NOx emissions have higher chances of being reduced with fuel-cell hydrogen or natural gas trucks. There is, however, a reduced interest by the scientific community in the transport literature in dealing with air pollutants, and the focus is mainly on GHGs emissions. When it comes to economic viability, natural gas and hybrid trucks are the best substitutes.

Biogas Production and Applications in the Sustainable Energy Transition

“…The transport sector accounts for about 14% of the global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions [157]. Diesel remains the most dominant energy resource used in transportation which calls for a shift to renewable and low carbon sources of energy [25]. The demand for clean nonfossil liquid transport has grown, and biogas to liquid fuel conversion is a feasible method to produce liquid transportation fuels [11,158].…”

“…These wastes can be channeled to biogas digesters and converted to useful energy. Biogas has got wide applications for cooking, lighting, cooling, engine combustion fuel, and gas mains supply for domestic and industrial applications and thermal and process applications [25].…”

“…Biogas has a significant role to play in the global energy transition because of the need to transform the global electricity systems from fossil fuel-based generation to low carbon and renewable energy-based power generation. With huge biomass to biogas conversion potential and many feasible biogas to electricity conversion technologies, biogas will play an extremely important role in the energy transition as a renewable energy fuel resource and feedstock for industrial production of chemical fuels and renewable products [25][26][27][28][29]. Microbially controlled generation of biogas is a significant part of the global carbon cycle where we have a natural anaerobic biodegradation estimated to generate 590-800 million tons of methane into the global atmosphere [30].…”

Modelagem da dispersão atmosférica de material particulado (MP10) e os impactos da utilização de veículos de carga movidos a GNL em São Paulo

“…Em relação a falta de dados e limitações de trabalhos, MACHADO et al (2021) fizeram uma revisão sistemática discutindo as limitações de dados de entrada em estudos voltados às tecnologias de transporte rodoviário de mercadorias interessados na redução de GEE e poluentes. Os resultados mostraram que as novas tecnologias podem apresentar inconsistências em dados ambientais e desempenho econômico, e que a falta de dados de entrada existe.…”

Vehicle-Cycle Inventory for Medium- and Heavy-Duty Vehicles

“…While fewer LCAs have been conducted for MHDVs compared to LDVs, a number of MHDV LCAs have been undertaken over the last decade (Machado et al, 2021;Sen et al, 2017). However, these studies have focused primarily on WTW analysis of fuels used for MHDVs (i.e., fuel-cycle analysis).…”