Environmental analysis of road transport: Sugarcane ethanol gasoline blend flex-fuel vs battery electric vehicles in Ecuador

Decarbonizing the passenger car transportation sector is mandatory. Nevertheless, other envi-ronmental impact categories should also be tackled. This research compares the life cycle envi-ronmental performance of passenger car transportation in Ecuador with energy carriers: first -generation ethanol-gasoline blends and electricity. The battery electric vehicle (BEV) current scenario utilizes the electricity from the 2018 national mix composed of 17% of fossil and 83% of renewable sources. Regarding the flex-fuel vehicle, the current scenario refers to the current mixture percentage of ethanol-gasoline (E5). The functional unit is defined as 1 km. The global warming potential (GWP) results are between 130-180 g CO2-eq/km for E5 and 42-176 g CO2-eq/ km for BEVs. For future scenarios, the GWP ranges are 250-270 g CO2-eq/km for E15 scenarios and 80-130 g CO2-eq/km for E85 scenarios. E85 scenario has less GWP than BEVs scenarios when fossil fuel electricity is used to charge them.

Automated summary

Decarbonizing passenger car transportation sector is necessary. This study compares the environmental performance of passenger car transportation in Ecuador using ethanol-gasoline blends and electricity as energy carriers. The results show that the global warming potential (GWP) of ethanol-gasoline blends (E5) ranges from 130 to 180 g CO2-eq/km, while for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) it ranges from 42 to 176 g CO2-eq/km. In future scenarios, the GWP ranges from 250 to 270 g CO2-eq/km for E15 and from 80 to 130 g CO2-eq/km for E85. E85 scenario has a lower GWP than BEV scenarios when fossil fuel electricity is used for charging.