IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/rensus/v211y2025ics1364032124009699.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Prospective life-cycle assessment of sustainable alternatives for road freight transport

Author

Listed:
  • Cabrera-Jiménez, Richard
  • Mateo, Josep Maria
  • Jiménez, Laureano
  • Pozo, Carlos

Abstract

This study investigates decarbonization pathways for the road freight transport sector by evaluating three alternatives to conventional diesel trucks: trucks powered by biofuels, battery electric trucks, and fuel cell trucks with hydrogen. A prospective life cycle assessment of these options is conducted under two policy scenarios for decarbonization across 12 distinct regions over the century. Employing a cradle-to-grave approach, the assessment covers activities from fuel and electricity production to the end-of-life of truck components. Findings reveal that, in eight of the 12 regions examined, an early transition to battery electric trucks could increase life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions by up to 70 % by 2030 compared to the continued use of conventional diesel trucks, underscoring the significance of liquid fuels for short to medium-term decarbonization. However, in the long term, as electricity mixes and hydrogen production are decarbonized, battery electric trucks and hydrogen fuel cell trucks emerge as superior alternatives in all regions, emitting, at least, 29 % less greenhouse gases than trucks powered by biofuels, and 45 % less than diesel trucks. The optimal transition from conventional diesel trucks to trucks powered by biofuels and, subsequently, to battery electric trucks and/or hydrogen could avoid 134–204 Gt CO2eq worldwide and prevent a temperature rise of 0.22–0.33 °C compared to the diesel-based scenario. This emphasizes the crucial role of appropriate policies for the timely transformation of the road freight transport sector. Despite this, battery and hydrogen trucks can impact human health up to 239–1200 % more than diesel, which is not to be taken lightly.

Suggested Citation

  • Cabrera-Jiménez, Richard & Mateo, Josep Maria & Jiménez, Laureano & Pozo, Carlos, 2025. "Prospective life-cycle assessment of sustainable alternatives for road freight transport," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:211:y:2025:i:c:s1364032124009699
    DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2024.115243
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1364032124009699
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.rser.2024.115243?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:211:y:2025:i:c:s1364032124009699. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/600126/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.