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Exploiting the Scientific Literature for Performing Life Cycle Assessment about Transportation

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  • Christian Spreafico

    (Department of Management Information and Production Engineering, University of Bergamo; 24044 Dalmine (Bg), Italy)

  • Davide Russo

    (Department of Management Information and Production Engineering, University of Bergamo; 24044 Dalmine (Bg), Italy)

Abstract

This paper provides an overview of the environmental impacts of different types of passenger transportation means (i.e., bicycles, motorcycles, cars, buses, trains, and airplanes). The method has been applied to the European scenario. The study was performed by using life cycle assessment in accordance with international standard ISO 14040/44 for assessing the CO 2 eq., SO 2 , and PM 10 of the transportation means by exploiting data (i.e., vehicles features and environmental impacts) from 24 scientific papers from the literature that have been manually analyzed. The functional unit is defined as the impact per 1 passenger over 1 km. The study identified that planes are the most impacting for CO 2 eq. with up to 380 g/pkm, while cars are the most impacting for SO 2 with up to 1.78 g/pkm and PM 10 with 0.98 g/pkm. Electric and hybrid models proved to be significantly better than others, while buses are the most sustainable in general. Referring to the overall European scenario, cars constitute up to 95% of the overall impacts. By comparing some improvements for reducing the impacts, it emerged that the limitation of diesel cars along with the increase of buses and trains are the most effective. The provided outcomes may be useful for legislators, manufacturers, and users for favoring the choice of the transportation means in a more environmentally conscious way.

Suggested Citation

  • Christian Spreafico & Davide Russo, 2020. "Exploiting the Scientific Literature for Performing Life Cycle Assessment about Transportation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-24, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:18:p:7548-:d:413000
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