The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is one of the greatest global challenges through 2050. Besides greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution, such as nitrogen oxide and particulate matter emissions, has gained increasing attention in agglomerated areas with transport vehicles being one of the main sources thereof. Alternative fuels that fulfill the greenhouse gas reduction goals also offer the possibility of solving the challenge of rising urban pollution. This work focuses on the electric drive option for heavy and light duty vehicle freight transport. In this study, fuel cell-electric vehicles, battery-electric vehicles and overhead catenary line trucks were investigated, taking a closer look at their potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution and also considering the investment and operating costs of the required infrastructure. This work was conducted using a bottom-up transport model for the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. Two scenarios for reducing these emissions were analyzed at a spatial level. In the first of these, selected federal highways with the highest traffic volume were equipped with overhead catenary lines for the operation of diesel-hybrid overhead trucks on them. For the second spatial scenario, the representative urban area of the city of Cologne was investigated in terms of air pollution, shifting articulated trucks to diesel-hybrid overhead trucks and rigid trucks, trailer trucks and light duty vehicles to battery-electric or fuel cell-electric drives. For the economic analysis, the building up of a hydrogen infrastructure in the cases of articulated trucks and all heavy duty vehicles were also taken into account. The results showed that diesel-hybrid overhead trucks are only a cost-efficient solution for highways with high traffic volume, whereas battery overhead trucks have a high uncertainty in terms of costs and technical feasibility. In general, the broad range of costs for battery overhead trucks makes them competitive with fuel cell-electric trucks. Articulated trucks have the highest potential to be operated as overhead trucks. However, the results indicated that air pollution is only partially reduced by switching conventional articulated trucks to electric drive models. The overall results show that a comprehensive approach such as fuel cell-electric drives for all trucks would most likely be more beneficial.

To solve the challenge of decarbonizing the transport sector, a broad variety of alternative fuels based on different concepts, including Power-to-Gas and Power-to-Liquid, and propulsion systems, have been developed. The current research landscape is investigating either a selection of fuel options or a selection of criteria, a comprehensive overview is missing so far. This study aims to close this gap by providing a holistic analysis of existing fuel and drivetrain options, spanning production to utilization. For this purpose, a case study for Germany is performed considering different vehicle classes in road, rail, inland waterway, and air transport. The evaluated criteria on the production side include technical maturity, costs, as well as environmental impacts, whereas, on the utilization side, possible blending with existing fossil fuels and the satisfaction of the required mission ranges are evaluated. Overall, the fuels and propulsion systems, Methanol-to-Gasoline, Fischer–Tropsch diesel and kerosene, hydrogen, battery-electric propulsion, HVO, DME, and natural gas are identified as promising future options. All of these promising fuels could reach near-zero greenhouse gas emissions bounded to some mandatory preconditions. However, the current research landscape is characterized by high insecurity with regard to fuel costs, depending on the predicted range and length of value chains.

Achieving the CO₂ reduction targets for 2050 requires extensive measures being undertaken in all sectors. In contrast to energy generation, the transport sector has not yet been able to achieve a substantive reduction in CO₂ emissions. Measures for the ever more pressing reduction in CO₂ emissions from transportation include the increased use of electric vehicles powered by batteries or fuel cells. The use of fuel cells requires the production of hydrogen and the establishment of a corresponding hydrogen production system and associated infrastructure. Synthetic fuels made using carbon dioxide and sustainably-produced hydrogen can be used in the existing infrastructure and will reach the extant vehicle fleet in the medium term. All three options require a major expansion of the generation capacities for renewable electricity. Moreover, various options for road freight transport with light duty vehicles (LDVs) and heavy duty vehicles (HDVs) are analyzed and compared. In addition to efficiency throughout the entire value chain, well-to-wheel efficiency and also other aspects play an important role in this comparison. These include: (a) the possibility of large-scale energy storage in the sense of so-called ‘sector coupling’, which is offered only by hydrogen and synthetic energy sources; (b) the use of the existing fueling station infrastructure and the applicability of the new technology on the existing fleet; (c) fulfilling the power and range requirements of the long-distance road transport.