Road transport vehicles and fuel infrastructure represent a huge system that has taken decades to build up and is largely taken for granted. Mobility is an essential part of everyday life and vehicles are required to be reliable, safe, cheap to buy, exciting to drive, recyclable, have good fuel economy and low emissions. Fuels must be fit-for-purpose, safe and easy to handle, available everywhere at all times and cheap. Any move away from proven routes needs to fulfil all these requirements with very little room for compromise. Low GHG emissions is now an additional demand which must be met with no adverse impact on any of the other requirements. In the same way as current vehicles and fuel infrastructure have evolved together, future vehicles and fuels must be also considered as a system.
There are a number of different strategies towards lower GHG emissions from road transport.
ICE and CNG: a gas alternative?
Fuel cells and hydrogen: future solution or on-going dream?
Combined carbon and hydrogen cycle with direct conversion fuel cells: perfect combination or academic fancy? Enabling and constraining factors:
The energy future is complex. There will be no single silver bullet and many options will play a part. Opportunities for real global GHG savings will be identified through integrated assessment, encompassing the whole energy sector, not only transport. WTW analysis will be essential.
The availability of renewables will in practice be limited for many years to come. There will be competition for resources amongst the different areas of the energy sector and with alternatives uses such as food in the case of biomass. All options will not be equivalent from a GHG point of view. Less GHG will often imply higher energy use. Optimum GHG will not necessarily coincide with optimum economics.
Road transport has become ubiquitous in our lives. The automobile has satisfied our yearning for individualised mobility while goods transportation by road has demonstrated a flexibility that other modes cannot match. The phenomenal growth of road transport has been made possible by the establishment of a now huge infrastructure, not only of roads, but also of facilities for vehicle manufacturing, marketing and servicing, fuel manufacturing and distribution.
This infrastructure has taken decades to build up and is largely taken for granted. The automobile is an essential part of everyday life and is expected to be reliable, safe, cheap to buy and maintain, exciting to drive, recyclable, have good fuel economy and low emissions. Fuels must be fit-for-purpose, safe and easy to handle, available everywhere at all times and cheap. Low greenhouse gas (GHG) emission is an additional demand which must now be addressed with no adverse impact on any of the other requirements.
Any move away from proven routes needs to fulfil all these requirements with very little room for compromise.
