Assessment of environmental impacts and costs for hydrogen-powered cargo shipping in Europe.

Communications engineering Pub Date : 2025-03-17 DOI:10.1038/s44172-025-00388-4

Simon Schlehuber, Moritz Gutsch, Niklas Kronemeyer, Florian Frieden, Stephan von Delft

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Abstract

The transportation of goods contributes considerably to global greenhouse gas emissions, underscoring the urgency of sustainable transport solutions. A promising yet underexplored solution is the introduction of small autonomous-driving hydrogen-powered boats (AHB) that can substitute long-haul trucking. Here we address this gap by modelling an AHB and then performing a life cycle assessment, coupled with a total cost of ownership analysis, across various scenarios. AHBs powered by green hydrogen are expected to emit 0.46 kg CO₂ eq km^-1 and cost 0.82 € km^-1 on average. In contrast, AHBs powered by gray hydrogen are characterized by average emissions of 1.12 kg CO₂ eq km^-1 and costs of 0.42 € km^-1. Furthermore, costs of the modelled AHB are compared to those of semi-trucks powered by different fuels to gauge the AHB's real world applicability. The results show that an AHB could be the cost-optimal solution for non-time sensitive transportation of goods exceeding distances of 624 km.

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欧洲氢动力货运的环境影响和成本评估。

货物运输对全球温室气体排放的贡献很大，强调了可持续运输解决方案的紧迫性。一个很有前途但尚未得到充分开发的解决方案是引入小型自动驾驶氢动力船（AHB），以取代长途卡车运输。在这里，我们通过对AHB建模，然后在各种场景中执行生命周期评估以及总拥有成本分析来解决这一差距。以绿色氢为动力的ahb预计每公里每公里排放0.46千克二氧化碳，平均成本为0.82欧元。相比之下，灰氢驱动的ahb的平均排放量为1.12 kg CO2 eq km-1，成本为0.42€km-1。此外，模型AHB的成本与使用不同燃料的半卡车的成本进行了比较，以衡量AHB在现实世界中的适用性。结果表明，对于超过624 km的非时效性货物运输，AHB是成本最优的解决方案。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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Communications engineering

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