Life cycle environmental impacts of natural gas drivetrains used in road freighting

The displacement of diesel in the road freight sector by natural gas could cut the sector's environmental impacts but methane emissions risk eliminating this benefit. A life cycle assessment has been performed to compare natural gas fuelled trucks to diesel, biodiesel, dimethyl ether and electric (UK grid mix), on impacts to climate change, air quality and resource depletion. LNG drivetrains exhibit climate change impacts lower than diesel (17-21%) and similar to electric drivetrains, but CH4 emissions will negate any benefits if they exceed 3.5% of throughput for typical fuel consumption. However, this is much higher than measured slip from current natural gas trucks. Biodiesel exhibits the lowest GHG emissions but for compressed natural gas, only at lowest fuel consumption and negligible methane emissions does this option reach climate parity with diesel. For the other indicators, natural gas exhibits lower impacts (11-66%) than diesel and is the best performer for all the indicators while electric and biodiesel are the worst. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.