Economic and environmental performances of natural gas for heavy trucks: A case study on the French automotive industry supply chain

Road transport is a major CO2 emitter that can be reduced by using alternative fuels. This paper offers a microsimulation of the adoption of compressed natural gas in heavy-duty vehicles based on real French data on industrial flows in 2018 from the automotive manufacturer Renault. Our purpose is to assess the potential of natural gas as a transition fuel for the supply chain by determining the economic conditions under which natural gas is both economically and environmentally beneficial. We consider two types of natural gas: bio-sourced and fossil. Both types of gas trucks prove cost-effective for long-distance flows within a short 5-year time period. However, fossil-fuel natural gas trucks emit from 3 up to 13% more CO2eq than diesel trucks on the same trip, due to the extra kilometres required to reach refuelling stations (+6.21% of distance covered on average). Conversely, compared to diesel trucks, bio-sourced gas reduces the carbon footprint of transportation up to 76%. Thus, only bio-sourced gas proves to be favourable. We also investigate other types of externalities, such as air pollution and noise. We finally find that carbon taxes should be based on life-cycle emissions in order to boost wider adoption of biogas.