Life Cycle Assessment of Alternative Traction Options for Non-Electrified Regional Railway Lines
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Abstract
The railway sector is facing significant challenges in addressing the increasing concerns related to climate change, environmental pollution and scarcity of resources. This especially applies to often non-electrified regional railway networks, with passenger services provided by diesel-driven vehicles. Innovative propulsion system concepts offer significant improvement of energy efficiency and reduction of overall environmental impact from train operation. This study presents a life cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions linked to the implementation of alternative powertrain systems in conventional diesel-electric multiple-unit vehicles employed on the regional railway lines in the northern Netherlands. The analysis encompassed the retrofit of a standard vehicle to its hybrid-electric, fuel cell-electric and battery-electric counterparts, and a comparative assessment of life cycle emissions during a ten-year time horizon. Results indicated significant impact of the production pathway for alternative energy carriers to diesel, namely hydrogen and electricity. The largest reduction in total emissions (96.80%) is obtained for a fuel cell-electric vehicle running on hydrogen produced from electrolysis, with slightly lower performance shown by the battery-electric configuration using green electricity produced from wind power (95.92%). Maintaining the diesel engine in the hybrid-electric alternative leads to a potential overall emission reduction of about 27%, as a result of improved fuel economy offered by the implemented energy storage system, and could be considered as a cost-effective transition solution towards carbon-neutral trains operation.