Well-to-Wheel Environmental Performance of a Long Haul Fuel-Cell Truck under Alternative Hydrogen Production Pathways: Route Resolved Insights from the ESCALATE Project

Executive Summary Decarbonising long haul heavy duty freight transport is essential for achieving European climate-neutrality targets. This study evaluates the well to wheel environmental performance of a 40 ton fuel cell heavy duty truck (FCHDT) developed within the ESCALATE project. A coupled MATLAB/Simulink and SimaPro-based modelling framework integrates route-resolved vehicle energy simulations with life-cycle impact assessment to evaluate the combined effects of operational strategies and hydrogen production pathways. Two operating contexts are considered: the Barcelona Geneva freight corridor and the VECTO long haul reference cycle. Results show that operational optimisation reduces hydrogen consumption and associated climate impacts by approximately 15.6% for the Barcelona Geneva corridor and 21.7% for the VECTO cycle. Hydrogen production pathways remain the dominant driver of environmental performance. Wind-powered electrolysis reduces aggregated environmental impacts to approximately 1 mPt per 100 km, compared with 13–14 mPt per 100 km for grid-based electrolysis and 4–5 mPt per 100 km for SMR-derived hydrogen. Vehicle efficiency improvements and low carbon hydrogen supply play a crucial role in improving the environmental performance of hydrogen powered long haul freight transport.