Life Cycle Assessment for an Eco-Friendly Electric Boat for Navigation in the Atrato River, Colombia

Transportation is one of the economic sectors with the highest energy consumption and a high contribution of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Although, river transport is recognized as the most sustainable, with the best environmental performance (noise and emissions) and greater energy efficiency, its consumption is 3 to 6 times lower than road transport, it continues to be highly dependent on fossil fuels. For this reason, research is being intensified in order to implement low-emission river alternatives. The objective of this study is to analyze the emissions of river propulsion alternatives for the Atrato River, Colombia’s third most important waterway, by means of a life cycle analysis (LCA) using SimaPro software. It was modeled for a shallow-draft boat (passenger transport) on a 479 km stretch, with three alternatives: conventional (fossil fuel), electric (lithium batteries), and hybrid, obtaining the emissions in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent: 323 kg CO2eq (Conventional), 31 kg CO2eq (electric), and 57 kg CO2eq (hybrid). The LCA made it possible to estimate a 90% reduction in CO2 equivalent emissions with the use of the electric alternative compared to the conventional alternative, demonstrating its applicability as an optimal alternative.