Bosch DFT—Digital Fuel Twin as Solution for Carbon Footprint Tracking of Fuels
摘要
The Bosch digital fuel twin (DFT) provides an effective market mechanism for transparency of CO2 emissions along the entire fuel supply chain. DFT digitalizes the supply chain from fuel production, storage, distribution into vehicle, with the aim of providing the end customer with an accurate, certified proof of the CO2 footprint of the fuel quantities consumed. The CO2 footprint certificate can be utilized for sustainability reporting, as support to proof if applications comply with contractual CO2 reductions or as a marketing and advertising instrument. DFT includes plausibility monitoring checks and quantifies blending of different fuels along the fuel supply chain up to the filling station, as well as in the vehicle’s tank. This way intended mixed refilling of lower carbon and fossil fuels for fleet operation is also supported. In this work the DFT working principle will be explained in detail and advantages for different stakeholders will be highlighted. Furthermore, potential applications beyond carbon tracking will be presented. For example, an established digital connection between filling station and vehicle would allow for the transfer of fuel batch specific properties to the vehicle powertrain level. Such data could improve on board fuel consumption monitoring (OBFCM) for diesel applications. It can further allow for better pre control of engine ignition parameters by octane number leading to significant engine efficiency gain in gasoline powertrains. Finally, large engine segments fuel quality monitoring is described as well as the application for Carbon Neutral Fuel only vehicle monitoring both enabled by DFT.