Life Cycle Assessment of conventional and alternative small passenger vehicles in Belgium
In this paper it is examined how environmentally
friendly conventional and new vehicle technologies are and how
their environmental effects can be compared. An automotive
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is being performed for small
family passenger vehicles in Belgium. Next to the well-to-wheel
(WTW) emissions (related to fuel production, distribution and
fuel use in the vehicle), the LCA also includes cradle-to-grave
emissions (related directly and indirectly to the vehicle
production, transportation, maintenance and the end-of-life
(EoL) processing of the vehicle). The considered impact
categories are: air acidification, eutrophication, human health
and greenhouse effect (GHE). Thanks to a range-based modeling
system, the variations of the weight of the vehicles, the fuel
consumption and the emissions are taken into account. The
results show that the battery electric vehicle (BEV) has the best
environmental score for all the considered impact categories.
Petrol vehicles have the worst impact on the greenhouse effect,
but hybridization of the drive train has a positive influence on
this impact category. The impact of the hybrid vehicle is
considerably lower than of the equivalent petrol vehicle. On the
other hand, when assessing the acidification impact, one can
notice that the hybrid car has a high impact. Without the
recycling of the NiMH battery, the results for the hybrid vehicle
would be even higher than for the equivalent petrol vehicle. This
is due to the production of the nickel contained in the NiMH
battery. Vehicles running on diesel have the highest impact on
eutrophication. The tank-to-wheel (TTW) part contributes the
most to the overall impact on eutrophication, as a result of the
NOX emissions. The evaluation of the impact on human health
shows that the petrol vehicle has the highest impact, due to the
high NOX, particulate matter (PM) and SOX (WTT) emissions.