Evaluating the impact of refrigerated transport trucks in China on climate change from the life cycle perspective

Abstract

With global increases in population and economic growth, refrigerated transport trucks play a critical role in human life, food quality and security, and environmental issues. However, little research has been done on the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions arising from refrigerated trucks that are rapidly increasing in developing countries, such as China. As such, projecting GHG emissions associated with refrigerated trucks and exploring effective measures to mitigate its global warming impact is necessary to reach climate goals. This study presents a carbon footprint novel model for evaluating refrigerated trucks by considering the lifecycle impacts of their refrigeration systems (refrigerators and refrigerants), insulated truck bodies, and truck chassis, including these elements' production, transportation, installation, use and repair, and recycling phases. We then quantitatively evaluate refrigerated trucks' overall carbon footprint based on data from seven typical regions in China. Our results show that the carbon footprint is remarkably high in the use phase, accounting for approximately 96% of an refrigerated truck's total GHG emissions. The hotspots in the refrigerated truck lifecycle have been identified as fuel consumption and the temperature difference between the outside and inside of the insulated truck body during the use phase. Moreover, we prioritize four low-carbon management strategies to mitigate the refrigerated truck sector's climate change impact, including energy efficiency improvement, clean electricity grid supply, environmentally friendly refrigerants, and alternative refrigeration technologies.