Comparative lifecycle assessment of hydrogen fuel cell, electric, CNG, and gasoline-powered vehicles under real driving conditions

Abstract

Since transportation is one of the major contributors of global warming and air pollution, developing low-emission vehicles can significantly result in a more sustainable environment. In this research study, four different types of personal vehicles, including gasoline-fueled, CNG-fueled, electric, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCV) vehicles, are considered to analyze the role of personal vehicles in transportation. In the first step, based on common vehicles, all selected vehicles are simulated in the Simcenter Amesim Software. The primary aim of the modeling is to investigate the performance of each vehicle under the NYC driving conditions. The results indicate that under the selected driving cycle, CNG and gasoline-fueled vehicles consume 165.44g and 174.07g of CNG and gasoline in each driving cycle respectively, while the electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles consume 1.51% of the battery pack capacity and 26.47 g of hydrogen per driving cycle, respectively. In the next step, to study the vehicles' life cycle assessments (LCA), the GREET software is implemented to investigate the overall performance of the vehicles from the cradle to the grave. Based on the LCA results, CO2, CO, NOx, GHG, and SOx pollution are examined for all selected vehicles, in which the FCV indicates the best behavior. Finally, the emitted CO2 for FCV in comparison with gasoline-fueled, CNG-fueled, and EV vehicles were 75.87%, 73.42%, and 35.5% lower, respectively.