Author(s)

F. Boureima, N. Sergeant, V. Wynen, H. Rombaut, J. Matheys, J. Van Mierlo, M. De Vos & B. De Caevel

Abstract

Nowadays, public authorities are faced with a conflicting situation in which the urgent necessity is to decrease greenhouse gas emissions combined with a steady increase of road traffic. To be able to take the most appropriate and efficient policy measures, the decision makers need to be provided with relevant and complete life cycle environmental impact data for each vehicle technology. Besides the vehicles’ environmental life cycle data, the environmental impact of every step of fuels’ life cycle must be assessed and provided as well. To achieve that purpose, a special Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) tool allowing the assessment of different vehicle types with different lifetime driven distances in one single model is being developed. A special modeling system (RangeLCA), using a range of values instead of averaged ones, will allow the potential variability of the data to be taken into account. The distribution of the main parameters of the model as well as the influence of their variability on each other will be taken into account thanks to a specific statistical tool integrated in the modeling system. The relevance of the choice of the parameters and the sensitivity of the LCA results to those parameters are checked on a regular basis throughout the modeling process. Temporary LCA results of the Volkswagen Touareg and the Volkswagen Golf as well as a sensitivity analysis of different parameters will be discussed Keywords: environment, alternative fuels, emissions, passenger car, modeling per range.

Keywords

environment, alternative fuels, emissions, passenger car, modeling per range.