F. Boureima

Life Cycle Assessment of conventional and alternative small passenger vehicles in Belgium

In this paper it is examined how environmentally friendly conventional and new vehicle technologies are and how their environmental effects can be compared. An automotive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is being performed for small family passenger vehicles in Belgium. Next to the well-to-wheel (WTW) emissions (related to fuel production, distribution and fuel use in the vehicle), the LCA also includes cradle-to-grave emissions (related directly and indirectly to the vehicle production, transportation, maintenance and the end-of-life (EoL) processing of the vehicle). The considered impact categories are: air acidification, eutrophication, human health and greenhouse effect (GHE). Thanks to a range-based modeling system, the variations of the weight of the vehicles, the fuel consumption and the emissions are taken into account. The results show that the battery electric vehicle (BEV) has the best environmental score for all the considered impact categories. Petrol vehicles have the worst impact on the greenhouse effect, but hybridization of the drive train has a positive influence on this impact category. The impact of the hybrid vehicle is considerably lower than of the equivalent petrol vehicle. On the other hand, when assessing the acidification impact, one can notice that the hybrid car has a high impact. Without the recycling of the NiMH battery, the results for the hybrid vehicle would be even higher than for the equivalent petrol vehicle. This is due to the production of the nickel contained in the NiMH battery. Vehicles running on diesel have the highest impact on eutrophication. The tank-to-wheel (TTW) part contributes the most to the overall impact on eutrophication, as a result of the NOX emissions. The evaluation of the impact on human health shows that the petrol vehicle has the highest impact, due to the high NOX, particulate matter (PM) and SOX (WTT) emissions.

Environmental Assessment Of Different VehicleTechnologies And Fuels

In this paper, a comparative LCA of conventional and alternative vehicles is performed. Thanks to a modeling approach combining LCA methodology, vehicle homologation data and statistical tools, all the available vehicle types in a given fleet are included in a single LCA model. Statistical distributions are used to include the variations of the main parameters (weight, fuel consumption and emissions) of all the considered vehicles in the LCA model. When dealing with greenhouse effect, battery electric vehicles (BEV) powered with the Belgian electricity supply mix, have a lower greenhouse effect (18.6 ton CO2eq/lifetime) than all the comparable vehicle technologies with exception of the sugar cane based bio-ethanol E85 vehicle (8.47 ton CO2eq/lifetime). For the different impact categories considered in this study, the impacts of the LPG technology are comparable to diesel. Euro 4 LPG and Euro 4 diesel have respectively greenhouse effects of 53.2 ton CO2eq/lifetime and 49.4 ton CO2eq/lifetime. FCEVs have lower impact than petrol and diesel vehicles for greenhouse effect, respiratory effect and acidification. CNG vehicles appear to be an interesting alternative for conventional vehicles. They have a low greenhouse effect (34.7 ton CO2eq/lifetime for a Euro 5 CNG) and the best score for respiratory effects and acidification. Furthermore Euro 4 CNG and Euro 4 HEV have comparable greenhouse effects (respectively 44.9 ton CO2eq/lifetime and 46.4 ton CO2eq/lifetime). Thanks to an iterative calculation process and the use of range of values instead average values, the variation of all the LCA results is assessed without performing a new LCA model. This approach provides the Urban Transport XVIII 15 doi:10.2495/UT1200 1 2 www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509 (on-line) WIT Transactions on The Built Environment, Vol 128,

Environmental Breakeven Point:An Introduction Into EnvironmentalOptimization For PassengerCar Replacement Schemes

This paper gives insights in how to introduce environmental aspects in automobile replacement policies. These policies aim at accelerating the adoption of cleaner vehicles by taking old vehicles out of the fleet, while supporting the vehicle industry. A scrappage policy must take the whole life cycle of a vehicle into account. Scrapping an old vehicle and manufacturing a new one creates additional environmental impacts which must be taken into consideration. This analysis is based on the comparison of the well-to-wheel (WTW) emissions with the cradle-to-grave (manufacturing, dismantling, recycling and waste treatment) emissions for vehicles with different ages, Euro standards and technologies. Optimizing vehicle’s LTDD (Life Time Driven Distance) causes an LCA (Life Cycle Assessment) challenge, combining two contradictory environmental engineering concepts. Letting a vehicle have a longer use phase avoids specific impacts during manufacturing, such as mineral extraction damage and energy usage. Conversely, replacement of an old vehicle with a new, more efficient one can lower the impacts introduced during the use phase. To differentiate between vehicle technologies it is investigated how long it takes until a newly produced car has an environmental return on investment. This period is called the environmental breakeven point.

LCA of Conventional and Alternative Vehicles Using a “Data Range-Based Modeling System”

This paper on using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) for conventional and alternative vehicles is from the proceedings of 14th international Conference on Urban Transport and the Environment in the 21st Century, which was held in Malta in 2008. The authors propose the LCA method to help public authorities to be able to take the most appropriate and efficient policy measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; LCA can provide relevant and complete life cycle environmental impact data for each vehicle technology. The authors describe a special modeling system (RangeLCA), that uses a range of values instead of averaged ones, and that takes into account the potential variability of the data. They use temporary LCA results on the Volkswagen Touareg and the Volkswagen Golf, and a sensitivity analysis of different parameters, to discuss the advantages of the RangeLCA method. They conclude that the range-based modeling LCA offers improvements in the reliability and the accuracy of LCA results by taking into account all of the possible situations and their influences on each other.