Functional Use-Based Positioning of Conventional Vehicles in Conjunction with Alternate Low-Emission Fuels

Abstract

India envisages energy diversification and transition to a cleaner fuel mix for the road transport segment, which contributes to about 75% of the country’s total CO2 emissions from the transport sector. In this pursuit, electric vehicles are pitted as a‘one size fits all’ solution to all the problems posed by the current fossil fuel-based transport in the country. The current vehicle fleet running in India is dominated by the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE)-based products (powered by mainly petrol and diesel), and the trend is likely to continue in the near-to-medium term. Therefore, it is necessary to consider alternate fuels for ICE-based vehicles to achieve decarbonization in India’s road transport sector. This study discusses the ICE-based alternate fuel options (natural gas, auto-gas and hydrogen) in the light of 28 identified parameters under the 4A framework of energy security, encompassing technical availability, resource availability, infrastructure accessibility, price affordability, social accept-ability and environmental acceptability. The 4A framework analysis is carried out to assess the large-scale deployability of the alternate fuel options. The learnings from a few prominent global experiences (compressed natural gas in Argentina, liquefied natural gas in China, auto-gas in Turkey, ethanol in Brazil, biodiesel in Indonesia and hydrogen research across the globe) have been imbibed in the mapping of the possi-bilities in the Indian context, keeping in mind the diverse functional uses of different vehicle segments within the road transport sector. Biofuel blends are deployable in the short term for all vehicles running on conventional petrol or diesel, whereas the expansion of natural gas usage is constrained by the lack of availability and accessi-bility beyond a few nodes. The energy transition in the freight segment would need a complete overhaul of the ecosystem since hydrogen appears to be the most prominent alternate fuel in the medium-to-long term.