Decarbonization potential of on-road fuels and powertrains in the European Union and the United States: a well-to-wheels assessment

Transportation is fundamental for any modern economy, but its growing energy demand and the related climate impact call for urgent action. Life-cycle analysis (LCA) is a suitable approach to assessing the greenhouse gas (GHG) performance and decarbonization potential of transportation fuels and vehicle powertrains. Here, we assessed well-to-wheels (WTW) GHG emission reductions for a wide set of lightduty vehicle fuel and powertrain technologies used in the European Union (EU) and the United States (U.S.) for their decarbonization potential. We focused on the similarities and differences of the results and the underlying methodologies and data of the two analyses. We evaluated the decarbonization potential of new fuel–vehicle systems in Europe and the United States in comparison to the baseline petroleum gasoline and diesel vehicles in each market. For the transportation fuels examined in both regions, waste-to-fuel technologies and drop-in renewable diesel fuels (biofuels) produced from residues offer the biggest opportunities for reducing per-energy-unit GHG emissions, but may be limited in scale-up potentials given feedstock availabilities, qualities, and logistics challenges. The potential benefits of electricity and hydrogen as fuels span a wide range, determined by the primary energy source and the potential deployment of carbon capture and sequestration technologies.

CAI Hao;  PRUSSI Matteo;  OU Longwen;  WANG Michael;  YUGO Marta;  LONZA RICCI Laura;  SCARLAT Nicolae; 

2022-09-30

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY

JRC126208

2398-4902 (online),   

https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2022/SE/D2SE00411A,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC126208,   

10.1039/d2se00411a (online),