The paper focuses on developing an energy-modeling tool called ENECO₂Calc, which allows the determination of current ecologic and economic footprints based on calculating the final energy demand within several sectors for municipalities. Furthermore, different energy transition paths until 2050 can be investigated and compared to the business-as-usual reference scenario. ENECO₂Calc is the first municipality-based energy-modeling tool that allows the development of meaningful scenarios until 2050 by considering climate policy goals and RES potentials, and it involves the mobility emission forecast tool “PROVEM”. ENECO₂Calc is exclusively based on consistent statistical datasets. Additionally, the energy-modeling process was demonstrated as exemplary for the Austrian municipality St. Margareten im Rosental. For the selected municipality, three different scenarios were investigated. It could be concluded that a mix of decentral RES technologies and central cogeneration units in the heat sector, a mix of solar PV and cogeneration units in the electricity sector, and the use of synthetic biofuels coupled with a higher share of electrification in the fuel sector seemed to be most promising in the considered region. ENECO₂Calc is a helpful energy-modeling tool toward climate neutrality to support municipalities in developing appropriate economic and ecological footprint strategies.

Purpose: The paper introduces MHP (Mobile Hydrogen Powersupply), an off-grid fuel cell electric system to recharge (stranded) BEVs, and discusses MHP from the life cycle perspective. The LCA shows the effects of system architecture, charging efficiency, hydrogen supply routes, and the predicted electric vehicle recharging demand on global warming potential and energy consumption and further gives recommendations to optimize the assessed environmental impact.Methods: Demand scenarios of mobile recharging assistances due to BEVs, stranded with an uncharged battery, are predicted for Austria and the greater Vienna area. The introduction of MHP follows the discussion of system architecture, operation strategy, and energetic charging efficiency. The LCA follows the guidance of the ISO 14040 standard and applies the Circular Footprint Formula. The functional unit is 1 kWh of electrical energy, balanced at the charging interface. The system boundary includes raw material extraction, production, transport of resources and products, use, and end of life management. The hydrogen supply is modeled representatively for Austria. The selected impact categories are global warming potential and cumulated energy demand. The data originate, among others, from GEMIS Austria, GREET2, and ProBas.Results and discussion: Environmental impacts vary between 0.40 and 1.58 kg CO₂eq/kWh-el and 4.95 to 7.68 kWh/kWh-el in the life cycle. In production and end of life processes, the hydrogen storage system leads to the highest weight-specific GWP and CED of MHP sub-systems due to the large share of CFRP. The efficiency of the MHP system is directly reflected in the use phase’s environmental impacts. The impact of MHP cooling efficiency, charging efficiency, and operation strategy on GWP and CED is below 12%. The CED primarily originates from hydrogen production. If the hydrogen supply route is mostly renewable and generates minor GWP, the MHP efficiency has only a small impact on the life cycle’s GWP and the production and end of life processes gain importance.Conclusions: Optimized material selection and lightweight construction reduce the life cycle impact. Further, the paper demonstrates that hydrogen supply significantly affects MHP’s environmental impact. Therefore, besides optimizing the production and end of life processes, implementing a renewable hydrogen infrastructure and providing renewable energies and fuels must be strongly accelerated.

Battery thermal management is critical for electric vehicles operating in cold climates, where low temperatures reduce battery efficiency, limit regenerative braking and accelerate degradation. This study compares PTC heater and heat pump systems for battery thermal management in electric minibuses using optimization-based control strategies. A control-oriented model of the vehicle thermal system, validated against chassis dynamometer measurements, and a heat pump system model, validated against testbed measurements, are used to optimize thermal management strategies via nonlinear programming, minimizing energy consumption while accounting for Joule losses, regenerative braking energy and thermal system consumption. Battery degradation is evaluated using a Doyle-Fuller-Newman (DFN) electrochemical model incorporating physics-based degradation mechanisms. Results show that optimized thermal management strategies can simultaneously reduce energy consumption and degradation. With the PTC heater system, only marginal improvements are achievable, and further reductions in degradation come at the cost of increased energy consumption. In contrast, the more efficient heat pump system enables simultaneous reductions in both degradation and energy consumption through optimized thermal management. These findings highlight that advanced thermal management leveraging heat pump systems can enhance both driving range and battery lifetime in cold-climate electric vehicle operations.