Maarten Messagie

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).

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 performance of lithium batteries: life cycle analysis

Abstract Lithium batteries are used more and more, but what is the related environmental impact? Batteries are known for their large effect on the environment. This chapter focuses on the environmental impacts of two lithium battery chemistries used in electric vehicles. How to evaluate the environmental performance of two different lithium batteries? A full life cycle perspective is important in order to avoid burden shifts from one life cycle stage to another. A good manner to implement an environmental assessment of a product is with a life cycle approach; that is to say that all the life cycle stages of the product are considered. This chapter focuses first on the availability and demand of lithium. Is it possible to meet the future demand for lithium? It is concluded from an extensive literature review that lithium availability will probably not pose an obstacle. However, certain conditions have to be met in order to guarantee this situation. Second, a comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) is performed, comparing a lithium manganese oxide (LMO) and a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery. The LCA covers all life stages of a traction battery, including the extraction of raw materials, the manufacturing of the battery, the usage, and the final disposal and recycling of the materials contained in the battery. The overall environmental performance of the battery is strongly dependent on its efficiency and directly tied to the energy mixes associated with its use. Lifetime durability and efficiency are the key environmental performance indicators. The differences between the two batteries are during the manufacturing and recycling stages. Depending on the impact category, the scores shift from both technologies.

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,

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.

Total cost of ownership of electric vehicles incorporating Vehicle to Grid technology

High purchase prices of electric vehicles (EV) currently still limit market adoption. Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) could provide an opportunity to make profit on EV grid connectivity, and thus reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) in comparison with conventional vehicle technologies. This study is a first step towards integrating V2G benefits in TCO modelling. Our Belgian case study on the city, medium and premium car segment illustrates that the benefits according to the current market conditions are very limited, more specifically the total cost decreases through V2G with 1%–2,59% over the lifetime of a vehicle. Through a Monte Carlo analysis on energy prices and the V2G contract conditions, it is shown that currently mainly in the premium market there is potential for a shift towards cleaner vehicles based on lowest total cost of vehicle technology.

Life Cycle Assessment of Nanotechnology in Batteries for Electric Vehicles

Abstract Through the usage of life cycle assessment methods, two different battery systems are benchmarked. One is composed by traditional Li-ion NMC graphite cells and the other, Li-ion NMC silicon nanowire ones. Their characteristics are displayed and challenged throughout different impact categories, such as climate change, human toxicity, and cumulative energy demand. These impact categories highlight the damages provoked during manufacturing, usage, and recycling of the battery systems within an electric vehicle usage scenario. Results show that silicon nanowire systems have slightly more impacts in climate change and cumulative energy demand categories, while regarding human toxicity, NMC graphite–based cells display higher scores.

Erratum: Environmental impacts of hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and battery electric vehicles—what can we learn from life cycle assessment? [International Journal of Life CycleAssessment, DOI 10.1007/s11367-014-0788-0]

This is a corrigendum and clarification on behalf of the authors. Figure 4 in the original version of this article (Nordelöf et al. 2014a) has been corrected as regards the results for the Nissan Leaf BEV. The corrected Fig. 4 is presented below, calculated using the 2008 EU-mix electricity causing 467 g CO2/kWh (Maas 2013) for the well-to-wheels life cycle, as intended and stated in the original article. The previous Fig. 4 incorrectly showed results based on a Belgian electricity mix. A related clarification, and correction, is made in section K.2, BCalculation of BEV results^, in the Supplementary Information (Nordelöf et al. 2014b), where the last sentence of the last paragraph of the section should state: BValues can be approximated to 18 g CO2-eq/km for the net equipment life cycle, after recycling has been credited, and 79 g CO2-eq/km for the WTW life cycle based on the WTT stage.^ Additionally, for clarification as regards Table 4 of the original article, the first sentence of the table caption should state: BSensitivity of exemplified production related equipment life cycle GHG emissions to the lifetime driven distance, when presented per kilometer.^ Correspondingly, the following two sentences should be added to the second paragraph of section F, BExplanation of Table 4^, of the Supplementary Information (Nordelöf et al. 2014b): BThe data from the three studies has been selected and extracted at different levels of aggregation, and implies no harmonization of system boundaries between the examples. For full details about the equipment life cycle results of each study, we refer to the original references.^ Finally, and most importantly, neither the corrections related to Fig. 4, nor the clarifications related to Table 4, alter any of the discussion or conclusions presented in the original article.

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.

Design and modeling of V2G inductive charging system for light-duty Electric Vehicles

Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) is an emerging technology resulting from the emergence of Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Renewable Energy Sources (RES). The energy stored in battery packs of EVs are a solution to the intermittency of RES. Therefore, design and control design of charging infrastructure for EVs are of high importance for the development of V2G. This paper presents a wireless charging infrastructure based on Inductive Power Transfer (IPT) for semi-fast charging of light-duty (LD) EVs. The Power Electronic Converters (PECs) and the applied control strategies are modelled by using MATLAB/Simulink. Simulation results show that G2V and V2G are feasible with the proposed charging system, with an overall efficiency of 92%.