Well-to-Wheel analysis of natural gas for hybrid electric truck application

¹ China-EU Institute for Clean and Renewable Energy, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China
² École des Mines, Paris, France
³ École des Mines, Paris, France
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Coal Combustion, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

Abstract

Compressed natural gas as an alternative fuel obviously has a great potential to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions. Although several studies on the life cycle are quite comprehensive for passenger vehicles, it is problematic to apply these results to heavy-duty electric hybrid trucks. This paper describes the Well-to-Wheel methodology for environmental impact from the gas production to its final application. The CO2 equivalent emissions and the methane leakage point will be identified at the end. The results indicate that compressed natural gas-based trucks have 18.7% less CO2 equivalent emissions than diesel-based ones. However, this benefit may be affected by methane leakage, particularly, in the recovery phase. Reducing methane emissions upstream could be an opportunity to optimize the pollution performance of heavy hybrid electric trucks.