Well-to-Wheels analyses are important tools that provide a rigorous examination and quantify the environmental burdens associated with fuel production and fuel consumption during the vehicle use phase. Such assessments integrate the results obtained from the Well-to-Tank (WtT) and the Tank-to-Wheels (TtW) analysis components.
The purpose of this study is to provide a preliminary Tank-to-Wheels assessment of the benefits associated with the introduction of alternative powertrains and fuels in the Chinese market by the year 2015 as compared to the results obtained with conventional internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs).
An emphasis is given on the vehicles powered by those fuels that have the potential to play a major role in the Chinese auto-sector, such as: M10, M85, E10, E85, Di-methyl Ether (DME) and Coal-to-Liquids (CTL).
An important conclusion of this report is that hybridization reduces fuel consumption in all propulsion systems. The TtW benefits of hybridizing internal combustion engines are found to be larger than those of hybridizing fuel cell vehicles because of the fuel cell's superior part-load efficiency relative to IC engines. Another major finding is that because the TtW component of fuel cell vehicles offer the potential to eliminate greenhouse (GHG) emissions when fueled with hydrogen, a renewable source of hydrogen production will offer the potential of extremely low WtW GHG emissions for fuel cell vehicles.
The analysis of the new fuels indicates a 2%-7% TtW reduction in the CO2 equivalent emissions for M85, E85 and CTL (M100). For M10, and E10 the reduction of GHG emissions is insignificant, about 1% compared to those of the vehicle running with gasoline. The CTL to diesel fuel has the same TtW GHG emissions as the DI diesel vehicle but 22% fewer emissions compared to the gasoline baseline vehicle. For DME the CO2 equivalent emissions are the same as the diesel vehicle.