Joeri Van Mierlo

Environmental impacts of hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery electric vehicles—what can we learn from life cycle assessment?

PurposeThe purpose of this review article is to investigate the usefulness of different types of life cycle assessment (LCA) studies of electrified vehicles to provide robust and relevant stakeholder information. It presents synthesized conclusions based on 79 papers. Another objective is to search for explanations to divergence and “complexity” of results found by other overviewing papers in the research field, and to compile methodological learnings. The hypothesis was that such divergence could be explained by differences in goal and scope definitions of the reviewed LCA studies.MethodsThe review has set special attention to the goal and scope formulation of all included studies. First, completeness and clarity have been assessed in view of the ISO standard’s (ISO 2006a, b) recommendation for goal definition. Secondly, studies have been categorized based on technical and methodological scope, and searched for coherent conclusions.Results and discussionComprehensive goal formulation according to the ISO standard (ISO 2006a, b) is absent in most reviewed studies. Few give any account of the time scope, indicating the temporal validity of results and conclusions. Furthermore, most studies focus on today’s electric vehicle technology, which is under strong development. Consequently, there is a lack of future time perspective, e.g., to advances in material processing, manufacturing of parts, and changes in electricity production. Nevertheless, robust assessment conclusions may still be identified. Most obvious is that electricity production is the main cause of environmental impact for externally chargeable vehicles. If, and only if, the charging electricity has very low emissions of fossil carbon, electric vehicles can reach their full potential in mitigating global warming. Consequently, it is surprising that almost no studies make this stipulation a main conclusion and try to convey it as a clear message to relevant stakeholders. Also, obtaining resources can be observed as a key area for future research. In mining, leakage of toxic substances from mine tailings has been highlighted. Efficient recycling, which is often assumed in LCA studies of electrified vehicles, may reduce demand for virgin resources and production energy. However, its realization remains a future challenge.ConclusionsLCA studies with clearly stated purposes and time scope are key to stakeholder lessons and guidance. It is also necessary for quality assurance. LCA practitioners studying hybrid and electric vehicles are strongly recommended to provide comprehensive and clear goal and scope formulation in line with the ISO standard (ISO 2006a, b).

Key outcomes from life cycle assessment of vehicles, a state of the art literature review

In this paper, an overview of the main findings in vehicle LCA is performed. This overview covers both methodological issues and results. The main challenges in terms of modelling the vehicle production, the vehicle use phase and the End-of-Life are addressed. For each of these vehicle life cycle phases, the main modelling approaches and data existing in the literature are studied. Finally, a comparison of vehicle LCA results from different sources is performed and the main result trends for different pollutants and/or impact categories are addressed. The paper points opportunities to improve the quality of vehicle-LCA studies.

TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTIONS AIMING AT RECOVERING METRO BRAKING ENERGY: A MULTI-CRITERIA ANALYSIS CASE STUDY

The transport sector, being responsible for a large share of fossil fuels consumption and emissions, mainly CO 2 , is seeking for different ways of reducing their energy consumption and, especially, their dependency on fossil fuels. The purpose of this paper is to present the Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) of technological solutions recovering metro braking energy. The MCA PROMETHEE method endorsed to select the most suitable technological solution for the tram and metro network in Brussels. The MCA approach allowed to firstly evaluate the different technologies and afterwards to propose an individual decision to the public transport decision-maker based on the decision problem objectives and the MCA results. Keywords: public transport, metro braking energy, PROMETHEE