Sustainability of Advanced ICEs Based HEVs for Passenger Cars Fuelled with Alternative Fuels: A LCA Study in Comparison with BEV Technology

A possible environmental assessment of sustainable vehicular transport is based on a comparative analysis through the LCA Life Cycle Analysis methodology of the entire vehicle’s life cycle. For this purpose, it could contribute to the choices of political decision-makers and investors in the sector of large infrastructure and industrial works. Therefore, the LCA activity is of fundamental importance for the estimation and analysis of the economic and social impacts through the comparative analysis of technological solutions in scenarios of “accelerated technological evolution” and/or “sustainable mobility”. The study could be designed for different vehicle segments to evaluate their efficiency and overall environmental sustainability also related to current social and political scenarios. Couples with electric and internal combustion vehicles of the same market segment and category may be compared. Furthermore, the comparative analysis is carried out during a PON Extreme research project by evaluating different scenarios and presenting the effect on the different factors of the technologies studied during project activities in terms of efficiency and reduction of the assessed impact. Globally the overall impact can be divided into: Well To Tank (WTT - “from the well to the tank”), due to the supply of primary energy to the vehicle (e.g. extraction of fossil fuel, production of biofuels, production of electricity, distribution), before this is used by the vehicle itself; Tank To Wheels (TTW - “from the tank to the wheels”), calculated according to the performance of the vehicle after it has been refueled and the vehicle production impact to manufacture and dispose the vehicle in all its components. Moreover, an Excel macro tool is developed to calculate and shows results based on the whole database capable to modify parameter and scenario to produce a variety of interesting future