Technical, economic, and environmental feasibility of alternative fuel heavy-duty vehicles in Iceland

Abstract

The literature available on alternative fuel heavy-duty trucks often focuses on greenhouse gas emissions and total cost of ownership assessments, drawing an insightful but incomplete picture of the best solutions for each context. Using Iceland as case study, this paper attempts to provide a broader perspective by including energy security, technical feasibility and air pollutant emissions in the assessment. AFLEET and GREET are used to calculate the life cycle emissions and the total cost of ownership of 10 heavy-duty powertrains using representative vehicle categories in Iceland: regional and delivery trucks. The technical feasibility of battery-electric and hydrogen trucks is addressed in terms of battery/tank required capacity for representative fuel efficiency values, while the resources available in Iceland are used to determine the local fuel production capacity and the potential impact of each alternative fuel pathway on energy security. The results suggest that battery-electric trucks present the highest environmental and economic benefits, although the limited range of current battery technology implies a high penetration only in delivery trucks. Hydrogen and compressed natural gas pathways present attractive results for regional trucks, although their implementation is limited due to high life cycle costs and insufficient feedstock capacity. Renewable diesel stands out as a potential solution to fill the gap for regional trucks as it presents overall satisfactory results throughout all dimensions addressed. The results suggest that a 100% alternative fuel heavy-duty fleet energy demand could be met using local resources in Iceland.