Life Cycle Emissions Analysis

The U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE's) Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office, along with other DOE offices, has been co-funding the development of and updates to Argonne National Laboratory's Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Technologies (GREET) model since 1995.

The GREET model characterizes life cycle emissions of hundreds of pathways to production of fuels, along with manufacturing emissions associated with conventional and emerging vehicle powertrains.

GREET currently has more than 40,000 registered users worldwide, including members of government, industry, and academia that use the model to inform research, development, and demonstration priorities and rulemaking efforts.

Stakeholders can access the GREET model on Argonne National Laboratory's website.

The GREET model is a one-of-a-kind analytical tool that simulates the energy use and emissions output of various vehicle and fuel combinations. Sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, GREET offers two free platforms to use: the GREET.net model and the GREET Excel model. To get a complete picture of the energy and environmental impacts of a technology, it is important to consider the full life cycle—from well to wheels for fuels and from raw material mining to vehicle disposal for automobiles. Fuel cell is represented by icons of an oil well, oil barrels, refinery, fuel dispenser, and vehicle. The vehicle cycle is represented by icons for mining, raw material production, manufacturing plant, vehicle, and recycling of vehicle parts.

Illustrative GREET model scope