Environmental assessment of future vehicle energy carriers and powertrains

The resource and climate problems related to the transport sector require that new energy carriers are introduced in the coming decades. This has been recognised in several policy documents, such as the Biofuels Directive in the EU. Various alternatives to petrol and diesel are discussed and tested in pure form and in combinations, e.g. ethanol, biogas, FAME, synthetic diesel, DME, methanol, hydrogen and electricity. They can be produced from different resources, of which renewables seem most promising in the long run. But how should policy-makers and firms choose which alternatives to support?

In recent years, we have studied how environmental assessments of emerging technologies could be made, to be more useful for strategic decisions about technology choice. We have now reached a point where the results are summarised and some recommendations on how to perform and use life-cycle assessments (LCA) for this purpose can be made.

In this thesis project, an environmental assessment of different renewable resources, energy carriers and powertrains will be made. The methodology will be based on LCA, and the results should focus on potential performance in the medium term (approx. 2030). The intention is to discuss ‘the inherent performance’ of different choices, rather than to estimate incremental improvements of present technologies.

We are looking for one or two students (engineers or similar) with knowledge of LCA methodology. Knowledge of renewables, energy carriers and powertrains would also be useful, but is not compulsory.