Inland shipping is an efficient way of freight transportation, especially in the Province of South Holland (the Netherlands), but this sector faces a significant challenge in further reducing climate change effects and local health and environmental impacts caused by the combustion of diesel fuel.

In this study, an analysis of the inland shipping sector in South Holland and its challenges and opportunities regarding a transition to “zero-emission” shipping is performed, based on a life cycle assessment (LCA). This LCA compares the environmental impacts of the annual operations of a medium-size, short-route inland barge, comparing different engine technologies and energy carriers: diesel in a combustion engine, hydrogen (grey/blue/yellow) in a combustion engine, hydrogen (grey/blue/yellow) in a fuel cell-electric power system, and electricity in a battery-electric power system. Results are obtained for 2020, 2030, 2050, and 2100, based on the SSP2 pathway for future socio-economical development wherein the electricity grid mix decarbonises and fossil-based diesel is phased out in favour of biodiesel and synthetic diesel, and assessed using the EF v3.1 assessment family.

The results indicate that the most significant sources of emissions are barge operations (for combustion engines, especially for diesel, and most of all for older diesel engines) and the fuel supply chain (for diesel and hydrogen), as well as some contribution from the production of batteries (for the battery-electric alternative) and fuel cells (for the hydrogen fuel cell alternative). Contributions from the life cycle of the barge hull, lubricant and oil streams, and infrastructure are minor. The main contributor to climate change is CO₂, and the main contributors to local health and environmental impacts are emissions of particulate matter (PM), NO_x, and SO_x.

For the selected case study barge, a battery-electric system provides the strongest reduction in environmental impact (climate change, acidification, photochemical oxidant formation, and PM formation) even with background data for 2020, and its advantage increases further as the electricity grid decarbonises. The battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell systems are the only ones which can be labelled as “zero-emission”, although the life-cycle emissions of hydrogen are high in the short term and its advantage only becomes apparent beyond 2030.

Among the hydrogen variants assessed, yellow hydrogen – produced by electrolysis from the electricity grid – has the lowest life-cycle climate change impacts in the long term, although it is not a clear winner when considering local health and environmental effects (acidification, PM formation) from its production. A hydrogen fuel cell system provides a slight but consistent benefit over hydrogen combustion due to a higher efficiency and the absence of operational emissions.
Sensitivity analyses indicate that the advantage of a battery-electric solution disappears for barges transporting larger loads and sailing longer distances, due to the larger energy capacity this requires, and becomes entirely impractical for long routes, where a hydrogen fuel cell solution provides the lowest impacts overall. Hydrogen fuel cells lose their advantage over hydrogen combustion for barges requiring very high engine power due to the additional impacts from fuel cell production exceeding the reduction from emission-free operations...