Renewable fuels can make a cost-effective, immediate and significant contribution to meeting UK targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions on the pathway to net zero.
That’s according to a new study from Zemo Partnership, which works to accelerate transport to zero emissions.
Its new study models vehicle life cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across a range of vehicles, powertrains and fuel/energy pathways to inform future policy direction.
The study finds low-carbon, renewable fuels offer the immediate potential to cut road transport emissions as the sector transitions to zero-emission technologies such as electric vehicles.
The research is principally aimed at harder-to-electrify applications such as long-distance trucks and coaches. But Zemo analysis shows that in all vehicle segments modelled, renewable fuels offer significant GHG emissions savings when compared with conventional, predominantly fossil-content fuels. Some renewable fuels applications show greater lifecycle GHG emissions savings than current battery electric vehicles using grid electricity, though rapid decarbonisation of UK power supplies will continue to shift the balance in favour of electrification over time.
Renewable fuels are already reducing GHG emissions from all existing petrol and diesel vehicles. Such vehicles will continue to form a significant part of the UK vehicle parc for many years.
The research shows using renewable fuels in hybrid vehicles can also help to decarbonise applications for which a pure electric vehicle is currently unaffordable or unavailable, due to the power demand, vehicle range or recharging considerations.
Zemo said the analysis shows that a one-size-fits-all approach to road vehicle applications is unlikely to be the optimal solution to road transport decarbonisation, at least in the short to medium-term.
The study authors recommend that transport policy and legislation should be more directly informed by vehicle lifecycle GHG emissions data, and not focused solely on mitigating tailpipe emissions.
Organisations developing fleet decarbonisation strategies should also consider vehicle lifecycle GHG emissions. In some circumstances, renewable fuels can achieve greater GHG emissions savings for the available budget than battery electric vehicles.
Operators of electric vehicles should also consider the size and capacity of the batteries used in their vehicles and optimise these depending on the use case. Larger, heavier batteries offer improved vehicle range, but emit more GHG emissions during production, increase vehicle consumption and may also reduce payload capacity.
Gloria Esposito, report co-author and Zemo’s head of sustainability, said: “Zemo’s study elegantly demonstrates the importance of lifecycle GHG emission analysis in fairly comparing different powertrain technologies and renewable fuels against today’s fossil fuel counterparts. Our work shows the significant contribution renewable fuels can continue to make towards reducing road transport GHG emissions. In particular, quick wins are available to the UK HGV fleet sector today.
“Transport policy has to rapidly evolve to embrace lifecycle GHG emissions metrics. This is imperative to safeguard against unintended consequences and to enable a broader range of technology options to be recognised as viable candidates for decarbonising transport.”
Zemo’s Vehicle Life Cycle GHG Emissions study is available here.
The partnership is also running an online webinar on 21 February 2024 at 14.00 to reveal more about the study and the contribution that renewable, low carbon fuels can make to cutting emissions. More details are here.
