Life-cycle assessment (LCA) is essential for evaluating the environmental impacts of products throughout their life cycle. This project focuses on Vehicle to X (V2X), which explores using electric vehicle batteries for purposes beyond driving, such as bi-directional charging. By addressing challenges like methodology, energy efficiency, and battery degradation, this research aims to close knowledge gaps and provide a better understanding of V2X’s environmental impacts, leading to more sustainable solutions. Pedro Anchustegui Balner is PhD student in the project.
Pedro, can you tell us a bit about your background?
“I’m from Mexico where I studied mechatronic engineering. I wanted to do a master abroad, and in 2017 I started the Industrial Ecology program at Chalmers. My thesis was about life-cycle assessment on end-of-life for tires, and was done at Volvo Cars. There I started to work as a purchaser, and then later switched to Volvo’s sustainability centre. When I saw the posting for this PhD project on life-cycle assessment on Vehicle to X, I knew it was something that would really interest me.”
What is the project Life-cycle assessment on vehicle to X about?
“Using electrical vehicles for other purposes than just driving is expected to be part of the infrastructure the coming years. Vehicle to Grid is the concept where the car can push electricity back to the power grid, while Vehicle to X, or vehicle to everything, means that the car battery can be used to charge all sorts of applications. Vehicle to X can also referr to the car’s communication with other entities, but my focus is on bi-directional charging. In the project I will investigate different solutions and potential applications for Vehicle to X, and assess life-cycle effects with focus on different environmental impacts.”
What are the main challenges?
“When it comes to life-cycle assessment it’s in this case very much a methodology challenge. Suddenly the car has two functions so life-cycle assessment becomes more complicated. How do we reconcile the total impact when combining the function of the traditional car, and the car as a battery? This allocation of impacts is something that we need to explore more, so that we can make decisions that result in more representative life-cycle assessments. Vehicle to X is also a rather new technology so there are still many uncertainties about future solutions. When it comes to the technical side a big problem with bi-directional charging is efficency. The energy loss is twice as high since every loss you have when charging also occur when discharging. Another problem is battery degradation that will most likely increase due to more frequent charging cycles. This is an area with a lot of ongoing research, which is a good thing of course, but, without consensus, it also makes data for life-cycle assessments more uncertain. Then you also have to consider that the car still needs to be able to serve as a car and not just as a stationary battery. Otherwise people will not accept that it’s used for Vehicle to X.”
What do you hope to achieve?
“Today there are considerable knowledge gaps when it comes to life-cycle assessment of Vehicle to X. Hopefully we can close those gaps to achieve a better overall understanding of the pros and cons, which in the end will lead to better overall solutions. This is my second year in this project and I’m currently working on my first manuscript. I hope that it will be published in the first quarter next year.”