Method for determining an environmental influence of a vehicle

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for determining an environmental influence of a vehicle (1) in a system comprising the vehicle (1) and a data processing unit (9), wherein the vehicle has a sensor unit (10) which detects a refueling process, a removal process or a consumption of fuel. The method has the following steps: - transmitting a first report message to the data processing unit (9), said first report message comprising a characteristic value of an environmental influence, e.g. a CO2 balance, of the selected fuel or an identification of the origin of the selected fuel, - in the vehicle (1), transmitting a second report message with a vehicle identification to the data processing unit (9), - in the data processing unit (9), generating a data entry comprising the vehicle identification and the characteristic value of the CO2 balance of the fuel or the identification of the origin of the fuel, and - determining the environmental influence of the vehicle (1) on the basis of said data entry.

Description

[0001] Method for determining the environmental impact of a vehicle

[0002] The invention relates to a method for determining an environmental influence of a vehicle in a system comprising the vehicle and a data processing unit.

[0003] It's well known from the state of the art to refuel vehicles with a wide variety of fuels. When the vehicle needs refueling, it's taken to a gas station and a fuel suitable for the vehicle's engine is selected.

[0004] Problems could arise if, for example, the vehicle's engine can only run on diesel, but the vehicle is accidentally refueled with gasoline, which could, for example, cause engine damage. To prevent this, the method disclosed in document DE 10 2006 044 780 A1 establishes communication between the gas station and the vehicle. The vehicle indicates to the gas station which fuel is suitable for the vehicle's engine (e.g., gasoline or diesel), whereupon the gas station authorizes refueling or issues a corresponding warning signal.

[0005] However, regardless of the problem of accidental misfueling discussed above, which can lead to engine damage, the filling station could also offer several different fuels, all suitable for the vehicle. Examples include fossil methane (i.e., methane of fossil origin) and biomethane (i.e., methane produced from biogenic materials and therefore essentially CO2-neutral). Regardless of whether the vehicle is fueled with fossil methane or biomethane, engine damage will not occur.

[0006] However, modern vehicle technology strives for vehicles to be powered exclusively by CO2-neutral fuels. In the example of fossil methane and biomethane, it could be stipulated by law that filling stations may only offer biomethane. This does not, however, preclude the vehicle user from simply going to another filling station abroad that is not subject to such restrictions and can therefore offer fossil methane. Furthermore, users could be subject to sanctions for filling up their vehicle with fossil methane. However, fossil methane and biomethane do not differ in their chemical composition, so subsequent testing of the fuel used in the vehicle using chemical tests is not possible. US 2012 / 0296549 A1 is cited as the state of the art; this document collects statistical data from a vehicle fleet, including data on CO2 emissions.In this process, refueling data from a petrol station are compared with vehicle data obtained from a change in fuel level after the ignition of a vehicle is switched on.

[0007] It is the object of the invention to provide a vehicle or a refueling system for vehicles in which it is possible to determine in a verified manner what environmental impact the vehicle has or has had on the environment.

[0008] This object is achieved by a method for determining an environmental influence of a vehicle in a system comprising the vehicle and a data processing unit, wherein the vehicle has an energy storage device, in particular a vehicle tank for storing fluid fuel (optionally a feed unit connected to the energy storage device) and a sensor unit (which may optionally be present in the feed unit) which detects a refueling process, a withdrawal process or a consumption of the fuel, wherein the method comprises the following steps:

[0009] Selecting a desired fuel and sending a first message to the data processing unit, wherein the first message comprises a fueled or to be fueled quantity and a characteristic value of an environmental impact, in particular a CO2 balance of the selected fuel or an identification of the origin of the selected fuel, in the vehicle, when the sensor unit detects a refueling process, a withdrawal process or a consumption of the fuel, sending a second message to the data processing unit,

[0010] - Determining the environmental impact of the vehicle based on the information provided in the first report message, wherein the second report message is preferably used to verify the first report message or to determine an additional environmental impact. In other words, the environmental impact of the vehicle can be determined based on the information provided in the (at least one) first report message and the (at least one) second report message. The latter step is generally carried out by the data processing unit. This method has the advantage that it can be reliably recorded whether the vehicle is being operated in an environmentally friendly or environmentally harmful manner. The challenges in this system are, in particular, that it is not possible to determine, for example, through a chemical analysis of the fuel whether the vehicle was refueled in an environmentally friendly manner.At the same time, simply recording the fuel used, e.g. by a vehicle driver, is not sufficient to determine the vehicle's environmental impact accurately and in a way that is tamper-proof.

[0011] However, the method according to the invention creates a way to compare the information provided by the gas station or a gas station system regarding a refueling process with the information provided by the vehicle regarding a refueling process. Since it can be assumed that fuel once added to the energy storage unit will also be withdrawn from it again, the further conclusion can be drawn that the properties of the refueled fuel can also be assigned to the withdrawn or consumed fuel. Only then is a tamper-proof recording of the refueled fuel and subsequent evaluation of its environmental impact possible.

[0012] The inventive comparison of the reporting messages is based on the realization that a unilateral report from the petrol station or a petrol station system regarding a refueling process is not sufficient to report the fuel in a tamper-proof manner, since the vehicle could, for example, drive to an unauthorized petrol station and refuel there in an environmentally harmful manner without a reporting message. At the same time, however, a unilateral report from the vehicle regarding a refueling process (or withdrawal process or consumption) would also not be sufficient, since the vehicle has no knowledge of the fuel's origin. According to the invention, both the petrol station or a petrol station system and the vehicle must independently report a refueling process (or withdrawal process or consumption).the vehicle can alternatively report a withdrawal process or consumption) to the data processing unit and the data processing unit must be able to compare these independent reporting messages with each other, e.g. to correlate them with each other.

[0013] The method according to the invention makes it possible to determine, in a tamper-proof manner, whether the motor vehicle was fueled or operated exclusively with, or at least to a sufficient extent with, an environmentally friendly fuel throughout its entire service life. The aforementioned characteristic value of the environmental impact of a fuel can, for example, be defined for a carbon-containing fuel as the CO2 released during the combustion of the fuel less a biogenic portion of carbon bound in the fuel, which can also be referred to as a CO2 balance. For a fuel such as hydrogen, which does not contain carbon, the CO2 balance can be used, for example, as the CO2 released during the production of the fuel, provided the fuel was not produced using renewable energies. It is understood that many other and significantly more precise definitions for characteristic values ​​of the CO2 balance are known to those skilled in the art.In one example, the fuel's CO2 footprint can be specified as a relative value for the fuel being pumped, e.g., X kg CO2 per kg of fuel, or as an absolute value for the fuel being pumped, e.g., Y kg CO2. The relative value can also be used in conjunction with a quantity of fuel. Furthermore, CO2 equivalents from methane emissions (or other emissions) or health-related parameters can also be included in the environmental impact metric.

[0014] The environmental impact of the vehicle is generally considered to be the environmental impact of the fuel with which the vehicle has been fueled or operated over its lifetime or even just over a predetermined period of time (e.g., during or since the last refueling or in the last month). Additionally, other aspects such as the efficiency of the vehicle's engine could also be considered in determining the environmental impact of the vehicle, although this is irrelevant for the present invention.

[0015] In a first aspect of the invention, it can be provided that the drivability of the vehicle is restricted if the vehicle's environmental influence is too great. To implement this technically, the following measures are used.

[0016] According to the invention, the method determines whether the vehicle meets predetermined environmental criteria. This can be implemented, for example, by a) determining the environmental impact of the vehicle as a characteristic value of the environmental impact, in particular the CO2 balance of the fuel with which the vehicle was refueled during one or more refueling processes or which was removed or consumed by the vehicle, wherein the following step is performed after the step of determining the environmental impact of the vehicle:

[0017] - Checking whether the environmental impact index of the fuel being refueled, withdrawn, or consumed is below or above a predetermined threshold. In the aforementioned case, the most recent refueling operation is typically reviewed. However, a longer period can also be reviewed, for example, using a weighted average. In this case, b) the environmental impact of the vehicle is determined as a weighted average of the environmental impact index of at least two fuels with which the vehicle was refueled during multiple refueling operations or which were withdrawn or consumed by the vehicle, wherein the following step is performed after the step of determining the environmental impact of the vehicle:

[0018] - Check whether the weighted average of the environmental impact index of the fuel refuelled, withdrawn or consumed is below or above a predetermined threshold.

[0019] Therefore, either measure a) or b) is taken.

[0020] The above threshold can be chosen arbitrarily and does not have to be correlated with a specific fuel. For example, the threshold can be set such that a ratio of two parts biomethane to one part fossil methane can be used. This can be determined using the weighted threshold across multiple refueling sessions or only during a single refueling session if the filling station provides a mixture of biomethane and fossil methane, which can be specified in the first notification message, e.g., as a key figure for the CO2 balance of this mixture.

[0021] According to the invention, technical sanctions can be imposed using the aforementioned threshold. In this case, the method comprises the following step:

[0022] Sending a message from the data processing unit to a control unit of the vehicle if the checking step revealed that the environmental impact characteristic value or the weighted average of the environmental impact characteristic value of the fuel being refueled is below or above a predetermined threshold, whereby the vehicle cannot continue driving after receiving the message, can only continue driving for a predetermined distance or period of time, or can only continue driving in a mode with restricted performance and / or restricted functionality. The control unit could be implemented as part of the vehicle's electronics, so that the blocking message has a direct influence on the vehicle electronics. However, the control unit could also be another element, such as a controllable valve in the fuel extraction path, so that the performance or function of the vehicle is throttled via this path.

[0023] Several variants are available for implementing the method according to the invention. In a first variant, which is particularly applicable when the sensor unit detects a refueling process, a gas station, for example, sends the first notification message. The first notification message contains the information about a single refueling process. At a minimum, the first notification message contains the quantity and the characteristic value of the environmental impact of the fuel or the identification of the origin of the fuel with which the refueling was carried out (e.g., actually).The method comprises the step of: in the data processing unit, receiving the first reporting message and the second reporting message and, if the first reporting message could be correlated with the second reporting message and thus verified, creating a data entry comprising the vehicle identification and the characteristic value of the environmental impact of the fuel or the identification of the origin of the fuel.

[0024] In this variant with correlation, the first report message and the second report message belong to a single refueling process. The correlation can be achieved, for example, using unique information contained in both report messages, e.g., a unique refueling number. However, the correlation could also be achieved using a vehicle identification contained in both messages if the two report messages also contain, for example, a substantially identical time stamp and / or a substantially identical quantity and / or a substantially identical location, such as a GPS location.

[0025] In a further variant, the first notification message could be decoupled from the actual refueling process, e.g., if the user reserves a refueling session with a quantity X of fuel Y at a petrol station or petrol station system in advance, and / or the second notification message could be decoupled from the actual refueling process, e.g., if the sensor unit measures a withdrawal or consumption. In this variant, the sensor unit measures the quantity of fuel refueled, withdrawn, or consumed, and the measured quantity is included in the second notification message. The step of determining the environmental impact of the vehicle can therefore comprise the following steps: - Determining a first environmental impact based on the characteristic value specified in the at least one first notification message or the identification of the origin,

[0026] - Determining the additional environmental impact based on a difference between a quantity of fuel specified in the second message and the quantity of fuel specified in the first message (whereby this additional environmental impact may also be zero, e.g. if the second message specifies a smaller or equal quantity of fuel than the first message(s),

[0027] - Determine the environmental impact of the vehicle as the sum of the first environmental impact and the additional environmental impact.

[0028] In this procedure, the first message indicates how much fuel is reserved for a vehicle. Since the second message contains the measured amount of fuel refueled, withdrawn, or consumed, the difference between the amount of reserved fuel indicated in the second message and the amount of reserved fuel indicated in one or more of the first messages can be used to determine whether the vehicle was also refueled with non-reserved fuel, thus assuming a worst-case environmental impact.

[0029] In the latter variant, the method can preferably further comprise the following step: creating a data entry comprising the first environmental impact and the additional environmental impact. This allows an environmental impact from one or more refuelings to be logged in one data entry. In contrast to the former variant, a refueling process is primarily defined by the second message.

[0030] However, the data entries could also be defined more generally, e.g. each (first and second) notification message could be stored as a single data entry, in which case the method comprises the following steps: in the data processing unit, creating a separate data entry for each received first notification message and creating a separate data entry for each received second notification message.

[0031] The environmental impact of the vehicle could then be determined based on all or the last X data entries and / or the data entries over a desired period Y.

[0032] In a minimum, the vehicle's environmental impact can be determined based on a single refueling. Preferably, however, multiple refueling events can be analyzed, and the vehicle's environmental impact can be determined based on these multiple refueling events. In this case, the method comprises the following steps:

[0033] Sending a further second notification message and creating the data entry for at least one further refuelling process, withdrawal process or consumption of the same vehicle, whereby all data entries of a vehicle are stored in a common data set, and

[0034] - Determining the environmental impact of the vehicle based on the data set with at least two data entries belonging to the same vehicle.

[0035] Preferably, the method takes place over the entire service life of the vehicle, in which case the steps of sending the first notification message, sending the second notification message, and creating the data entry for at least one further refueling process are performed from the initial start-up of the vehicle and repeated for each refueling process of the vehicle. More generally, it can be defined that the environmental impact of the vehicle is determined based on the first and second notification messages received over the entire service life of the vehicle.

[0036] In the latter case, a life cycle analysis may also be carried out, in which case the step of determining the environmental impact of the vehicle includes the following steps:

[0037] - Determining an environmental impact (characteristic of an) that occurred during the manufacture of the vehicle, and

[0038] Adding the environmental impact caused by the manufacture of the vehicle and an environmental impact caused by the fuel according to all data entries for this vehicle or, more generally, the environmental impact of the vehicle determined on the basis of the first and second reporting messages.

[0039] To ensure that the data processing unit can reliably correlate the two notification messages, the refueling station preferably records the vehicle identification of the vehicle to be refueled before sending the first notification message and includes this in the first notification message. The data processing unit then correlates the first notification message and the second notification message based on the vehicle identification. However, alternative correlations are possible, e.g., by the refueling station and the vehicle exchanging a unique identification of the refueling process before refueling.

[0040] In the method according to the invention, the data processing unit can be located in a server, wherein the gas station has a transceiver which sends the first notification message to the server and wherein the vehicle has a transceiver which sends the second notification message to the server. Alternatively, the data processing unit could be located on the vehicle and the gas station has a transceiver which sends the first notification message to a transceiver on the vehicle connected to the data processing unit, wherein the data processing unit can be located in a secure element. It would also be possible for the data processing unit to be located at the gas station. The variants have different advantages. If the data processing unit is located in a server, a high level of security is achieved because it is not physically accessible.If the data processing unit is present on the vehicle, the environmental impact can be determined autonomously and without any data protection concerns.

[0041] As explained above, safety concerns are of great relevance with the method according to the invention, especially since environmentally harmful refueling is difficult to determine retrospectively and can have significant environmental impacts. Therefore, several steps can be taken to ensure that users cannot circumvent the method according to the invention.

[0042] To prevent a user from refueling the vehicle without authorization, the procedure could include the following step:

[0043] Outputting an alarm signal when the data processing unit receives a second message for which there is no first message.

[0044] Furthermore, the notification messages and / or the data entry(s) or the data set can be stored on a blockchain. This prevents notification messages and / or data entries from being subsequently manipulated or deleted.

[0045] In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the method comprises the steps:

[0046] - depositing a certificate at the petrol station or in the vehicle, whereby the certificate is sent to the data processing unit as part of the first reporting message or second reporting message; and

[0047] - Verifying the authenticity of the certificate in the data processing unit before determining the vehicle's environmental impact or generating the data entry. In the two variants above, with the first and second certificates, an additional level of security is introduced against fraudulent attempts to circumvent the system. Specifically, the certificate prevents a fraudster from faking the notification message, since the fraudster will not be in possession of an authentic certificate. Many options for implementing the certificate are known in the field of cryptography. In one example, the respective certificate can be issued by an independent authority, and the unit to be verified can, after receiving the message bearing the certificate, have the independent authority verify whether the certificate, and thus the message, is authentic.

[0048] In a second aspect, the invention relates to a method for determining an environmental influence of a vehicle in a system comprising the vehicle and a data processing unit, wherein a filling station system is provided into which a first fuel and a second fuel are introduced, wherein it is known how much first fuel and how much second fuel is present in this filling station system, wherein the vehicle has an energy storage device, in particular a vehicle tank for storing fluid fuel, and a sensor unit which detects a refueling process, a withdrawal process or a consumption of the fuel, wherein the method comprises the following steps:

[0049] Selecting a desired fuel by the user by reserving a fuel from the petrol station system and sending a first message to the data processing unit, wherein the first message comprises a fueled or to be fueled quantity and a characteristic value of an environmental impact, in particular a CO2 balance, of the selected fuel or an identification of the origin of the selected fuel, wherein the sending of the first message occurs asynchronously to an actual refueling process in the vehicle when the sensor unit detects a refueling process, a withdrawal process or a consumption of the fuel, sending a second message to the data processing unit,

[0050] - Determining the environmental impact of the vehicle on the basis of the information provided in the first reporting message, wherein the second reporting message is preferably used to verify the first reporting message or to determine an additional environmental impact.

[0051] The second aspect of the invention is based on the realization that, for determining the environmental impact in a filling station system, the information about the environmental impact of the fuel is not necessarily linked to the actual refueling process. Globally, in a filling station system with at least a first fuel and a second fuel, only a limited amount of first fuel and second fuel will be available. In this system, only as much first fuel and second fuel can be refueled as is available in the filling station system. Therefore, the environmental impact of a vehicle can be understood as the quantity attributable to the fuel that the user of this vehicle has reserved in advance (e.g., by purchasing certificates representing the first reporting messages).Considered as a whole, the environmental impact of all vehicles was just as significant as the environmental impact of all fuels in the filling station system. This system allows for technical measures to be taken to determine the CO2 footprint (or an equivalent footprint) across the entire system and to be allocated to each vehicle individually.

[0052] All of the above variants explained in connection with the first aspect of the invention can also be used in connection with the second aspect of the invention. For example, a sperm message can also be used in the second aspect of the invention.

[0053] Advantageous and non-limiting embodiments of the invention are explained in more detail below with reference to the figures.

[0054] Figure 1 shows a first embodiment of the method according to the invention. Figure 2 shows a flowchart of the method according to the invention.

[0055] Figure 3 shows a timeline with several refueling processes.

[0056] Figure 4 shows a second embodiment of the method according to the invention. Figure 5 shows a third embodiment of the method according to the invention.

[0057] Figure 1 shows a vehicle 1 with a vehicle tank 2, to which fuel can be supplied via a filling station 3. The vehicle tank 2 usually comprises a feed unit with a filling coupling 4 and a filling line 5, which leads from the filling coupling 4 to a connection point 51 in the vehicle tank 2. Fuel can be fed into the vehicle tank 2 via the feed unit. The vehicle 1 could, for example, have a supporting frame and two axles, as shown, with a vehicle tank 2 being mounted on one or both sides of the supporting frame between the axles. The vehicle 1 is usually a road vehicle with at least four wheels, but could also be a train, an aircraft, a ship, a submarine or the like. The vehicle tank 2 is designed to store fluid, e.g. petrol, diesel or the like.In particularly relevant embodiments of the invention, the vehicle tank 2 is a cryogenic container for storing cryogenic fluid, in particular LNG (liquefied natural gas) or hydrogen. Depending on the cryogenic fluid, the cryogenic container 2 is thus designed to store cryogenic fluid at temperatures of, for example, below 150 Kelvin, in the case of hydrogen even below 50 Kelvin or below 30 Kelvin or essentially 20 Kelvin. Depending on the application, the cryogenic container 2 could, for example, be designed to store sLH2 (subcooled liquid hydrogen) or CcH2 (cryo-compressed hydrogen) and thus also be designed for correspondingly high pressures, e.g., for maximum pressures between 1 bar and 350 bar.

[0058] In other variants, however, the fuel could also be electricity. In this case, a battery is provided instead of a vehicle tank 2. In general, the battery and the vehicle tank 2 can be understood as energy storage devices. If the fuel is electricity, the feed-in unit is, for example, a charging port (which optionally enables inductive charging) of the battery and corresponding electrical lines between the charging port and the battery. The embodiments explained below are explained for the case where the fuel is a fluid, although these embodiments can also be implemented for electricity as the fuel. Furthermore, the terms “fueling”, “filling”, “loading”, “removing”, “consuming” etc. are used below for both fluids and electricity.

[0059] As background for the embodiments explained below, it should be mentioned that the origin of the fuel that is to be fed into or loaded into the energy storage device plays a key role in maintaining a desired CO2 balance. This will be explained using biomethane and fossil methane as examples. Biomethane and fossil methane are indistinguishable in their chemical composition and can be described by the chemical formula CH4. When methane is burned, it is clear from the reaction equation CH4 + 2*O2 = CO2 + 2*H2O that both methane and biomethane release the same amount of CO2 during combustion. When calculating the CO2 balance, however, it must be taken into account that during the production and combustion of biomethane, only the CO2 that was previously absorbed by the plants during photosynthesis is released. Therefore, biomethane can be regarded as essentially CO2 neutral, whereas fossil methane cannot.

[0060] The principles explained above can also be applied to other fuels. In the case of hydrogen H2, no CO2 is produced in a fuel cell, so the fuel cell operates essentially emission-free. However, when calculating the CO2 balance, the origin of the H2 must be taken into account. In many cases, hydrogen is produced from fossil natural gas using steam reforming, in which case a large amount of CO2 is released, so that hydrogen can also have an environmentally harmful CO2 balance. In other cases, however, hydrogen is produced using solar or wind power, in which case hydrogen is considered essentially CO2-neutral or at least less environmentally harmful than hydrogen produced using the aforementioned method.The same considerations apply to electricity, as it can come, for example, from wind power, in which case its environmental impact is low, or from the combustion of coal, in which case its environmental impact will be greater.

[0061] To summarize the above explanations, the present invention is based on the fact that the fuel type is not considered in isolation in terms of its chemical and / or physical composition, but rather its origin is also taken into account for a more comprehensive description of the fuel. Therefore, for example, a first database DB1 could be provided that links a fuel identification fuell, fuel2 (this could be a serial number of the fuel or simply a chosen name such as "biomethane") with a CO2 balance bill, bil2 of the fuel.Instead of the CO2 footprint, you can use an equivalent benchmark (e.g., a CO2 footprint plus CO2 equivalents from methane emissions) or simply a binary "yes" / "no" rating, where "yes" indicates a CO2 footprint below a predetermined threshold and thus an environmentally friendly fuel, and "no" indicates a CO2 footprint above a predetermined threshold and thus an environmentally harmful fuel. All of these ratings are considered "indicators of an environmental impact."

[0062] The embodiments described below are intended to determine the environmental impact the vehicle has or has had on the environment. As can be seen from the above, the origin of the fuel used is particularly relevant to this question. If, for example, the vehicle was fueled exclusively with biomethane throughout its entire service life, it is understood that the vehicle's environmental impact will be lower than if it had been fueled with fossil methane.

[0063] To determine this environmental impact of the vehicle, according to Figure 1, both a gas station 3 and the vehicle 1 report a refueling to a data processing unit 9 (in embodiments described below, the vehicle could also detect consumption or a withdrawal process and report it accordingly). This serves, among other things, to exclude or at least significantly impede fraudulent reporting attempts. Specifically, the gas station 3 sends a first reporting message to a data processing unit 9, and the vehicle 1 sends a second reporting message to the data processing unit 9.

[0064] In the example of Figure 1, an external server 6 is also provided, in which the data processing unit 9 is present. The server 6 or the data processing unit 9 communicates, on the one hand, with a transceiver 7 of the gas station 3 and, on the other hand, with a transceiver 8 of the vehicle 1. For ease of explanation, it is generally stated that the server 6 or the data processing unit 9 communicates with the gas station 3 or the vehicle 1, whereby this is understood to mean communication with the respective transceiver 7, 8.

[0065] In an initialization step that takes place at the beginning, it can be provided that the gas station 3 receives a unique identification ID1 of the vehicle 1 before refueling begins, e.g. by guiding a pump nozzle from the gas station 3 to the filling coupling 4 of the vehicle in order to carry out short-range communication at this point, e.g. using RFID. For example, in a first step S1, shown in Figure 2, the gas station 3 can send a request to the vehicle 1 and the vehicle can transmit its identification ID1 to the gas station 3 in a second step S2. Alternatively, the gas station 3 could also optically capture a license plate number of the vehicle 1. There are therefore many options possible as to how the gas station 3 can obtain the identification ID1 of the vehicle 1.

[0066] As shown in Figure 1, the filling station 3 could store a plurality of fuels fuell, fuel2 which, in particular as explained above, have the same chemical composition but a different CO2 balance (or generally a different environmental impact). The user of the vehicle 1 or the user of the filling station 3 can choose in a step S3 whether the vehicle 1 should be refueled with the first fuel fuell or with the second fuel fuel2. However, the user of the vehicle 1 could also select, for example, that refueling should take place with 50% of the first fuel fuell and 50% of the second fuel fuel2. Of course, the filling station 3 could also have fuels with different chemical compositions, although this is irrelevant in the present invention and it is assumed that the vehicle 1 is supplied with a fuel with a composition suitable for it.Before starting refueling or during refueling of vehicle 1 with identification ID1 with fuel fuel, gas station 3 now sends a first notification message to server 6 in a step S4. The first notification message contains the identification ID1 of vehicle 1 and the information about the desired fuel fuel. In Figure 1, this request message is therefore referred to as msg(ID1, fuel). It would be possible for this request message to also contain additional information, for example, the quantity of fuel refueled and / or a timestamp of the refueling. As explained further below, the request message could also contain less or different information.

[0067] To ensure that the refueling of this vehicle 1 can be verified by the vehicle 1 itself, the vehicle 1 comprises a sensor unit 10 that detects a refueling process by the at least one gas station 3. In other embodiments, which will be explained at the end of this description, the sensor unit 10 could also detect a withdrawal process or consumption. For the purposes of the following explanations, however, it is initially assumed that the sensor unit 10 detects a refueling process, although all variants can also be applied to other sensor units 10.

[0068] The sensor unit 10 is preferably designed to detect a fluid flow (or current flow if the fuel is current) through the feed unit, in particular the filling coupling 4 or the filling line 5, in which case the sensor unit 10 can be, for example, a mass flow meter. This also has the advantage that this sensor unit 10 can determine the mass or volume of the fuel being refueled. If the sensor unit 10 is designed to detect a fluid flow through the feed unit, it can also be advantageous if it only detects a refueling process per se and does not measure any mass flow, mass, or volume.

[0069] The sensor unit 10 could also be designed as a fill level sensor in the vehicle tank 2. The amount of electric fuel could also be measured via electrical means, e.g. in kWh. An increase in the fluid level in the vehicle tank by the fill level sensor or a change in the charge level of the battery can be interpreted as a refueling process. In simpler cases, however, a mechanical device could also interpret the insertion of a fuel nozzle as a refueling process. In this case, the refueling process is only indirectly detected and, in particular, no mass flow can be measured. Measurement data from several sensors can also be combined to detect a refueling process. In cases where the control unit does not measure any mass flow, mass and / or volume, a time stamp is preferably assigned to the refueling process so that the detected refueling process, e.g.can be correlated with a corresponding refueling measured by the gas station. For example, sensor unit 10 detects a refueling process at 10:21, and the gas station reports that this vehicle was refueled with X liters of fuel Y during the same period. Based on the timestamp of sensor unit 10, the first report from the gas station can be validated. This method has proven particularly advantageous because sensor units 10 cannot determine the mass flow or the fill level change accurately enough for the purpose of determining the environmental impact. The validation method using the timestamp overcomes this problem.

[0070] As soon as the aforementioned sensor unit 10 detects a refueling process, a second notification message is sent to the data processing unit 9 in step S5. As shown in Figure 1, the second notification unit can include, for example, the identification ID1 of the vehicle 1, a confirmation "ack" from the sensor unit 10 that a refueling process is taking place or has taken place, and a timestamp timel of the refueling.

[0071] The data processing unit 9 can correlate a first notification message and a second notification message, for example, if both the first notification message and the second notification message contain the identification ID of the vehicle 1. Additional or alternative correlation steps can be provided by exchanging a unique identifier for the refueling process between the vehicle 1 and the filling station 3 in steps S1, S2, by means of which identifier the data processing unit 9 can correlate the two notification messages. The two notification messages could also include a time stamp. Time stamps can be considered correlated if they lie within a predetermined time window (e.g., 30 seconds or 60 seconds). The quantities or volumes of the refueled fluid could also be included in the notification messages, via which a correlation can be made.Furthermore, a correlation could be carried out using GPS coordinates, possibly in combination with a timestamp.

[0072] Once the data processing unit 9 has received the first notification message and the second notification message and has been able to correlate them, it creates a data entry DE in step S6, which includes at least the vehicle identification ID and the characteristic value of the fuel's environmental impact or the identification of the fuel's origin. The data entry DE can also contain other entries such as a timestamp timel or a quantity of the filled fuel, although this is not mandatory.

[0073] It should be emphasized that the data processing unit 9 only creates the data entry DE once both the first and second message have been received. If only one message is received, to which no other message is associated, an alarm signal can be issued, as specified below.

[0074] In other variants, however, the data processing unit 9 can also create a data entry DE when a first notification message has been received and another data entry DE when the second notification message has been received, i.e., a separate data entry DE is created for each first and / or second notification message. This is particularly useful for those variants in which the sensor unit 10 measures a withdrawal process or consumption, or in which the first and / or second notification messages are decoupled from an actual refueling process (see below).

[0075] The data entry DE can, for example, be stored in an internal database of the data processing unit 9, which is only readable by authorized users. Alternatively, the internal database could be publicly accessible, or the data entry DE could be sent to an external database. In other variants, the data entry DE can also be stored on a blockchain.

[0076] Once the data processing unit 9 has created at least one data entry DE, the environmental impact of the vehicle 1 can be determined in a step S7. If, for example, the data entry DE indicates that biomethane was used during the last refueling process, it can be output in step S7 that the vehicle has been operated in a CO2-neutral manner at least in the recent past. However, if the data entry DE indicates that fossil methane was used during the last refueling process, the output environmental impact can also be the characteristic value of the CO2 balance or, more generally, the characteristic value of the environmental impact of the fuel.

[0077] In particular, the aforementioned first database DB1, in which the characteristic value of the environmental impact bill of the fuel fuell is shown, can also be stored in the data processing unit 9. In a step S5, the data processing unit 9 can thus determine which characteristic value of the environmental impact, e.g. which CO2 balance, the fuel fuell has. If the first notification message thus receives the identifier fuell of the fuel, the data processing unit 9 can, using the first database in step S2, directly store the characteristic value of the environmental impact bill in the data entry DE or, alternatively, in step S7, if this is necessary for determining the environmental impact of the vehicle 1, the first database DB1 could be used to convert the identifier of the fuel into a characteristic value of the environmental impact bill. In yet other cases, the first notification message could directly include the characteristic value of the environmental impact.

[0078] In the above explanations, it was assumed that a single refueling process took place, resulting in a single first reporting message and a single second reporting message, which were linked to form a single data entry. Thus, the environmental impact of vehicle 1 is determined based on a single refueling process.

[0079] Figure 3 shows a timeline where timeO represents the time of vehicle manufacture. Refueling operations took place at times time1, time2, and time3. It can be seen that the determination eval3 only applies to the refueling operation that was performed at time3.

[0080] However, the same process of steps S4-S6 can now be repeated for at least one further refueling operation. In the following, it is assumed that the same vehicle 1 with the identification ID1 is performing the refueling operation. As explained below, the process could also be performed for a second vehicle with the identification ID2 (or, in general, many other vehicles 1).

[0081] If the vehicle 1 with the identification ID1 starts another refueling process, for example at a second time time2, a first reporting message and a second reporting message are again sent to the data processing unit 9, which then generates a second data entry DE, which in turn includes at least the vehicle identification ID and the characteristic value of the environmental impact of the fuel or the identification of the origin of the fuel.

[0082] If two data entries DE exist for the same vehicle identification ID1, they are stored in a common data set DS. Alternatively, all data entries from different vehicle identifications ID1, ID2, ... could be stored in one data set DS. The example in Figure 1 shows that there is a data set DS in which three refueling processes for the same vehicle 1 with the identification ID1 were recorded, which were carried out at three different times time1, time2, time3. The first and second refueling processes were carried out with the first fuel fuell, and the third refueling process was carried out with the second fuel fuel2. This chronological sequence of the three refueling processes can also be seen in Figure 3.

[0083] If a data set DS with at least two data entries DE for the same vehicle 1 is available, the determination of the vehicle's environmental impact can be carried out on the basis of this data set DS. For example, the last X refueling processes, the refueling processes of the last Y days and / or refueling processes with fuels with a total quantity Z (e.g., 10 m 3 or 1000 kg of fuel). For each of these refueling processes, the characteristic value of the environmental impact bill, bil2 can be used, and an average value, preferably a weighted average, can be determined, which is used as the environmental impact of vehicle 1. In Figure 3, for example, the environmental impact could be determined based only on the two refueling processes at the times time2, time3.

[0084] In particular, the data set DS enables all refueling processes since the vehicle was first put into operation to be recorded in the data set by repeating steps S4-S6 for each refueling process. This allows all refueling processes to be recorded over the entire service life, whereby the environmental impact of vehicle 1 can be determined over its entire service life. In the step of determining the environmental impact of vehicle 1, all data entries DE recorded for a vehicle 1 are therefore used and evaluated. Here, too, for example, an average value, preferably a weighted average value, can be determined, which is used as the environmental impact of vehicle 1. In Figure 3, the determination eval2 of the environmental impact of vehicle 1 since its first commissioning is carried out, for example, using the three refueling processes that took place at the times time1, time2, time3.

[0085] If all refueling operations for a vehicle 1 are recorded throughout its lifetime, a so-called lifecycle analysis of the vehicle can also be performed. This initially determines how much CO2 (with or without CO2 equivalents) from non-renewable sources was released during the production of the vehicle 1 at time timeO. Based on this initial value, the environmental impact of the vehicle, as determined above, can be added. In an idealized case, the vehicle was refueled only with a fuel that comes 100% from renewable sources, in which case the environmental impact after the lifetime corresponds only to the stated initial value. In the worst case, the vehicle was refueled only with fossil fuels, so the total environmental impact corresponds to the initial value plus the CO2 released by the fuel. In Figure 3, this lifecycle analysis determination is denoted by eval3.

[0086] As mentioned above, the data set DS can only contain the data entries DE of a single vehicle 1 with the identification ID1. In this case, a separate data set DS is created for each vehicle. In another case, however, the data set DS can also contain data entries DE from different vehicles 1. In this case, when determining the environmental influence of a vehicle 1 in step S6, only those data entries DE are retrieved from the data set DS that belong to this vehicle 1 with the identification ID1.

[0087] In all of the aforementioned variants, step S7 of determining the environmental influence can be followed by further steps, such as checking whether the characteristic value of the environmental influence (or the weighted average of the characteristic value of the environmental influence) of the fuel being refueled is below or above a predetermined threshold. If this is the case, a message can be sent from the data processing unit 9 to a control unit 11 of the vehicle 1 in step S7. The vehicle can be designed such that, after receiving the blocking message, it cannot continue driving or can only continue driving in a mode with restricted power. Typically, the message is sent for this purpose via the transceiver 8 to vehicle electronics, which, for example, prevents the engine from starting or prevents the engine from running at excessive power. The blocking message is shown in Figure 1 as msg3(stop).After receiving the sperm message, the vehicle could also continue driving with restricted functionality, e.g., at a reduced maximum speed. Alternatively or additionally, the vehicle could only continue driving for a predetermined distance or time period after receiving the sperm message.

[0088] For the aforementioned purposes, a second database may be present in server 6, in which the vehicles 1 identified with the identification ID1, ID2 are assigned a maximum environmental impact bil maxl, bil_max2, e.g., a maximum CO2 balance, which forms the aforementioned threshold value. The threshold values ​​may vary depending on the vehicle 1. For example, it could be possible for passenger cars to adhere to stricter or less strict restrictions regarding the maximum environmental impact than trucks or safety-critical vehicles such as police vehicles, fire engines, or ambulances. In other words, the identification ID1 could be assigned to a group of vehicles that should not exceed a corresponding maximum environmental impact bil maxl.A further or alternative grouping could be based on the weight of the vehicle, whereby heavier vehicles or older vehicles with a more environmentally friendly maximum environmental impact may be refuelled than correspondingly lighter or newer vehicles.

[0089] The process of correlating the two notification messages described above, or the algorithm for determining the environmental impact, can be further protected against manipulation and fraud attempts by implementing a few additional measures, as explained below. For example, the first notification message and / or the second notification message could be provided with a certificate (cert, cert2), which is only issued by a higher-level authority and is forgery-proof.

[0090] For example, to prevent a gas station 3 from feigning that it will refuel with a fuel fuell with an environmental impact bill, even though the gas station only has a fuel fuel2 with a higher environmental impact bil2 available, the aforementioned certificate zertl can only be issued to certain gas stations 3. A first notification message sent by this gas station 3 can now include this certificate zertl. After receiving the first notification message, the server 6 or the data processing unit 9 checks whether it includes the first certificate zertl and only generates the aforementioned data entry DE if the first notification message includes the certificate zertl.

[0091] Furthermore, the second notification message could be prevented from being forged, e.g., by providing a certificate cert2 in vehicle 1. A second notification message sent by vehicle 1 can now include this certificate cert2. Upon receipt of the second notification message, the server 6 or the data processing unit 9 checks whether it includes the second certificate cert2 and generates the aforementioned data entry DE only if the second notification message includes the certificate cert2.

[0092] For example, at gas station 3 and / or in vehicle 1, a secure element could be present that generates the first notification message and / or the second notification message. The respective certificates (certified, cert2) could also be stored in this secure element. A secure element is defined here as a tamper-proof physical component (usually a secure single-chip microcontroller) capable of securely hosting applications, for example, according to rules and security requirements established by a trusted authority.

[0093] Figure 4 shows a further embodiment that is operated as an alternative to the embodiment of Figure 1 without an external server 6. Here, the data processing unit 9 is located directly on the vehicle 1. Unless otherwise stated below, all aspects and variants of Figure 1 can also be applied to the embodiment of Figure 4.

[0094] In the process shown in Figure 4, an optional initialization process can also be performed first, including the steps S1 and S2 explained above. The initialization primarily serves to ensure that gas station 3 receives an address for vehicle 1, to which the first notification message can be sent.

[0095] Subsequently, as specified above, a fuel level can optionally be selected in step S3, after which the first notification message is sent in step S4 from the gas station 3 to the data processing unit 9 on the vehicle 1 (this is typically done via wireless communication), wherein the first notification message contains the information on the fuel level. After refueling has begun, the sensor unit 10 detects a refueling process, after which the second notification message is sent to the data processing unit 9 in step S5, as explained above.

[0096] Once the data processing unit 9 has received both the first notification message and the second notification message, it can in turn generate the data entry DE. All options explained in relation to Figure 1, particularly with regard to determining the environmental impact of the vehicle 1 based on the aforementioned data entry DE, the data set DS, and the sending of the blocking message, are also applicable to the method of Figure 4.

[0097] In the method of Figure 4, however, it is usually provided that each data record DS is maintained separately for each vehicle 1. In these cases, the identification ID1 does not have to be part of each data entry DE, but the identification ID1 is implicitly specified by this data record DS, as shown in Figure 4 by the entry "ID1." This could also be provided in Figure 1 if a separate data record DS is maintained for each vehicle 1.

[0098] It is evident that the embodiment of Figure 4 allows for a correct determination of the environmental influence at a superficial security level, but two notification messages must still be correlated by the data processing unit 9 before a data entry DE is generated. However, since all components are freely accessible and, in particular, the security-critical data processing unit 9 is not located on the remote server 6, further precautions are typically taken to increase the security level.

[0099] On the one hand, in the embodiment of Figure 4, it can also be provided to provide the aforementioned first certificate zertl at the gas station 3. A first notification message sent by this gas station 3 can now include this certificate zertl. After receiving the first notification message, the data processing unit 9 checks whether it includes the certificate zertl and starts generating the data entry DE only if the first notification message includes the certificate zertl.

[0100] In particular, the data processing unit 9 can be present in a so-called secure element. Reference is made to the above definition of the secure element.

[0101] Since the data processing unit 9 is located in a secure element, the algorithm for authenticating the first certificate and / or the algorithm for generating the data entry DE cannot be influenced from outside. In other words, the secure element provides no way to manipulate or circumvent these algorithms.

[0102] The secure element with the data processing unit 9 is preferably an integral part of the sensor unit 10 and, for example, permanently connected to it. This allows the second notification message to be sent directly to the data processing unit 9 via a wired connection (or via an integrated circuit). If necessary, the second notification message could also be transmitted wirelessly.

[0103] At this point, we will also discuss what happens if an error occurs in the process of steps S1-S8. For example, the data processing unit 9 could only receive one of the two notification messages. This can occur in particular if the user refuels the vehicle at an unauthorized petrol station that is unwilling or unable to send a first notification message. Furthermore, the data processing unit 9 could determine that the first notification message and / or the second notification message does not contain a first or second certificate (zertl, zert2) or does not contain a valid one. In all of these cases, the data processing unit could output an alarm signal, which is forwarded, for example, to a supervisory authority so that the operations of the vehicle 1 can be checked. The alarm signal could also be sent to the vehicle 1 so that, for example, an optical signal is displayed there.The illumination of the optical signal can indicate that fraud attempts have occurred on vehicle 1.

[0104] Furthermore, it should be noted at this point that communication between gas station 3 and vehicle 1 preferably takes place via short-range communication such as RFID, although this is not mandatory. Communication could also take place, for example, via a cellular mobile network or the Internet. Generally, this communication is preferably radio, i.e., wireless, although communication can also be wired via corresponding contacts on the fuel pump nozzle and the filler neck 4. Communication between server 6 and gas station 3 or vehicle 1 preferably takes place via a cellular mobile network or the Internet.

[0105] It can also be seen from Figures 1 and 3 that the filling station 3 can store the first fuel fuell and the second fuel fuel2 physically separately from one another, i.e. two separate pumps are provided at the filling station, one pump dispensing only the first fuel fuell and the other pump dispensing only the second fuel fuel2. The first reporting message is generated on the basis of a measurement signal from a mass flow meter which measures the dispensing of the respective fuel fuell, fuel2. In such a system, special safety precautions can be provided, e.g. the feed unit of the said vehicle 1, which is only intended to refuel in an environmentally friendly manner, can have a specially designed filling coupling 4 into which the first pump can be inserted, but not the second pump.For Legacy vehicles, which can also refuel in an environmentally harmful manner, a Legacy filling coupling 4 can be provided, whereby both the first nozzle and the second nozzle can be inserted into the Legacy filling coupling 4. However, these designs are by no means mandatory.

[0106] In practice, at some filling stations 3, they receive the aforementioned fuels fuell, fuel2 with the same chemical composition but different CO2 footprints and store them as a mixture in a single storage facility (or multiple storage facilities). In this case, filling station 3 can maintain internal accounting of certificates of origin (i.e., certificates other than the aforementioned certificates zertl, zert2 for verifying the authenticity of the reporting messages) to ensure that no more environmentally friendly fuel is delivered to vehicles 1 than is actually available to filling station 3. These certificates of origin can be attached to the first reporting message and stored in data processing unit 9 for later retrieval as evidence.However, from a global perspective, this does not affect the determination of the environmental impact of vehicle 1, since it is simply assumed that the filling station only dispensed the desired fuel fuell, fuel2.

[0107] In yet other variants, filling stations 3 can be provided that only store predetermined fuels, preferably only a single fuel, e.g., an environmentally friendly fuel with a low environmental impact. If the second notification message includes a current position such as a GPS fix, the data processing unit 9 can check whether it is plausible that the fuel fuell, fuel2 indicated in the first notification message was actually refueled at the refueling location. For this purpose, the data processing unit 9 can, for example, access another database in which the fuel fuell, fuel2 available at a filling station location is assigned.

[0108] As additional safety levels, mass balances can be drawn for filling station 3 and / or the vehicle in the described system. To draw a mass balance for filling station 3, the following procedural steps can be performed:

[0109] - Determining the quantities of fuel supplied to the filling station 3 and comparing, if necessary using the data entries DE stored in the data processing unit 9, whether the quantity of fuel delivered to vehicles 1 corresponds to the quantity of fuel supplied to the filling station, whereby a distinction is made between fuels with the same chemical composition but different CO2 balance.

[0110] These procedural steps can be used to verify whether petrol station 3 actually only dispenses as much environmentally friendly fuel as it has received.

[0111] To draw a mass balance for vehicle 1, the following procedural steps can be carried out:

[0112] Estimating a quantity of fuel consumed by vehicle 1, wherein the estimation is performed based on a distance traveled by the vehicle, and comparing whether this estimated quantity of fuel matches the quantity of refueled fuel shown in the data entries DE. In this variant, the first reporting message and / or the second reporting message will include the refueled quantity of fuel. The mass balance for the vehicle can be used to check or verify the plausibility of whether all data entries DE are actually present in order to mathematically determine the distance traveled by the vehicle. If this is not the case, it must be assumed that vehicle 1 did not report refueling processes and that sensor unit 10 could have been bypassed in the process.

[0113] As explained above, the methods described here are used to determine a vehicle's environmental impact, i.e., a measurement method is created for these vehicles. This can then be exploited, for example, via the aforementioned message, to render vehicles immobile if, for example, they have only refueled with environmentally harmful fuel over a long period of time (or, as described above, have exceeded certain thresholds with the total amount of fuel refueled). In addition to the aforementioned sanction of rendering the vehicles immobile, other sanctions can also be imposed for unjustified environmentally harmful refueling, such as the collection of a toll based on the vehicle's environmental impact.

[0114] In all of the embodiments described above, the second notification message essentially served as verification of the first notification message. Furthermore, the first notification message was sent by gas station 3 as soon as it initiated a refueling process. In the simplest case, the second notification message can include an "OK." If the second notification message could be correlated with the first notification message, this is considered verification of the first notification message.

[0115] Figure 5 shows a further embodiment for determining the environmental impact of the vehicle 1. In contrast to the embodiments explained above, in the variant of Figure 5 the reporting message is not used to verify a refueling process at the petrol station, but as independent basic information for determining the environmental impact, as explained below.

[0116] Figure 5 shows that a filling station system 100 for providing fuel is considered. In this filling station system 100, for example, a first fuel fluid 1 and a second fuel fluid 2 can be introduced. As described above, these fuels fluid 1 and fluid 2 can have different environmental impact characteristics. However, in such a filling station system 100, there is no strict separation of the fuels fluid 1 and fluid 2, since, as described above, they can have the same chemical composition or are to be regarded as equivalent as a stream. A filling station 3 therefore does not need to know whether it has actually been refueled with fuel fluid 1 or fuel fluid 2. However, it is important to note that it is nevertheless well known how much fuel fluid 1 and how much fuel fluid 2 is in this filling station system 100.In other words, no more environmentally friendly fuel fluid 1 can be withdrawn from this filling station system 100 than is introduced into it.

[0117] If a user now wishes to have their vehicle 1 refueled with environmentally friendly fuel, they can purchase or reserve it at a gas station 3 or from the gas station system 100 (e.g., online via a platform). For example, the user of vehicle 1 reserves 20 liters of fuel. For the gas station system 100, this means that it contains 20 liters less fuel. Consequently, users will only be able to purchase as many shares of the first fuel as were introduced into the gas station system 100.

[0118] It should be noted that instead of the filling station system 100, a single filling station 3 can also be considered, which, for example, knows how much fuel, fuell, and how much fuel, fuel2, is available to it. Here, it can be enabled for users to reserve as much fuel, fuell, at this filling station 3 as has been supplied to it.

[0119] In a first method step, the user selects the fuel he wishes to use to refuel his vehicle 1. In general, the user could also choose to refuel the vehicle 1 proportionally with several fuels, e.g., with a 50 / 50 mixture of the first fuel, fuell, and the second fuel, fuel2. After the user has selected the fuel, fuell, and the quantity to be refueled, the petrol station system 100 (or the petrol station 3 at which the user actually wishes to refuel the vehicle 1) sends a first notification message to the data processing device 9. The first notification message includes the quantity of fuel to be refueled or refueled (which also allows the user to simply "fill up" and then determine the quantity); alternatively, initial notification messages could also be generated incrementally during a refueling process, e.g.,after each liter) and a characteristic value of an environmental impact, in particular a CO2 balance, of the selected fuel or an identification of the origin of the selected fuel. In one example, the first message reads: "20 liters of biomethane are provided for the vehicle with the identification ID1." In order to determine the environmental impact of vehicle 1, the sensor unit 10 again detects a refueling process. In the variant of Figure 5, the sensor unit 10 also detects the quantity of fuel refueled. After the sensor unit 10 has detected refueling, it sends a second message to the data processing unit 9. The second message includes the quantity of fuel refueled detected by the sensor unit 10. In one example, the second message reads: "30 liters of fuel were refueled into the vehicle with the identification ID1."

[0120] Once the data processing unit 9 has received the first notification message and the second notification message, it can determine the environmental impact of the vehicle 1. The first notification message is used to determine a first environmental impact, and the second notification message is used to determine an additional environmental impact.

[0121] In one example, data processing unit 9 first determines a first environmental impact based on the environmental impact characteristic value or the origin identification specified in the at least one first reporting message. For the first reporting message, "20 liters of biomethane are provided for the vehicle with the ID1 designation," the environmental impact is the CO2 footprint of 20 liters of biomethane. Ideally, this environmental impact is "zero."

[0122] The data processing unit 9 then determines the difference between the amount of fuel specified in the second message and the amount of fuel specified in the first message. In other words, it determines how much fuel the vehicle 1 has filled up with that was not identified as environmentally friendly fuel in the filling station system 100. This difference can be attributed to a fictitious environmental impact, such as a "worst-case" environmental impact. In one example, the fictitious environmental impact is used as the equivalent of a fossil fuel with which the vehicle 1 can be filled up. In the above example, in which the second message reads "30 liters of fuel were filled into the vehicle with the identification ID1", the difference is 10 liters.However, since the data processing unit 9 does not know the source of the 10 liters of fuel, it assumes that it is fossil methane and the environmental impact of this difference is determined. This is referred to as an "additional environmental impact". Figure 5 also shows that the first report msgl specifies a quantity massl of the first fuel fuell. In fact, however, the sensor unit 10 measures a refueling process with a quantity mass2. Subsequently, a data entry DE is generated in which the quantity massl is assigned to the fuel fuell and the difference quantity mass3 = mass2 - massl is assigned to a "fictitious" fuel fuel2 with a "worst case" environmental impact.

[0123] The vehicle's total environmental impact based on the first and second reporting messages is thus determined from the sum of the first environmental impact determined from the first reporting message and the additional environmental impact determined from the specified difference. In the above example, the vehicle's environmental impact corresponds to the environmental impact of 10 liters of fossil methane, since no environmental impact was attributed to the 20 liters of biomethane in this example.

[0124] This example also shows that the first notification message does not necessarily have to be synchronized with an actual refueling event. For example, at the beginning of a month, the user can reserve a certain amount of environmentally friendly fuel from the filling station system 100. If the user refuels less than the reserved amount of fuel, i.e., if the quantities specified in the second notification messages are smaller than the quantities specified in the first notification messages, this can be taken into account when determining the environmental impact.

[0125] Furthermore, in relation to the above statements, it should be noted that the user can of course reserve not only environmentally friendly fuel, but also environmentally harmful fuel, so that the sum of the quantities from the first reporting messages and the second reporting messages is the same.

[0126] From the above example it can be seen that many first notification messages (e.g. one first notification message per reservation in the petrol station system 100 or payment at the petrol station 3) and many second notification messages (e.g. one per detected refueling process) are sent to the data processing unit 9.

[0127] In this variant of Figure 5, data entries DE can also be generated, each of which includes, for example, the first environmental impact (according to the first reporting message) and the additional environmental impact. However, the data entries do not require any precise formal specifications and can in turn include a vehicle identification and the characteristic value of the environmental impact of the fuel indicated in the first reporting message or the identification of the origin of the fuel indicated in the first reporting message as well as the characteristic value of the environmental impact of the fictitious fuel of the difference quantity. In one case, the data entry DE could have a first partial entry that is structured for the fuel of the first reporting message like the data entry DE of the variant of Figures 1 to 4, and a second partial entry that is structured for the fictitious fuel of the difference quantity like the data entry DE of the variant of Figures 1 to 4.

[0128] In another case, if the first notification message indicates the reservation of a fuel with a quantity that is greater than the actually refueled quantity specified in the second notification message, a first environmental impact can be determined based on the actually refueled quantity and the fuel specified in the first notification message (it can also be said that at least part of the first notification message is verified). After that, a next refueling process can take place without the user reserving further fuel, in which case a second notification message will again be present. A second environmental impact can now be determined, taking into account the "remaining quantity" of the first notification message. The remaining quantity of the first notification message corresponds to the quantity specified in the first notification message minus the quantity specified in the second notification message.These examples particularly demonstrate that the first and second notification messages do not need to be correlated, so the first and second notification messages can also be considered "asynchronous." The data entries DE could again be considered, as specified above, as a pair consisting of at least part of a first notification message and at least part of a second notification message, or the data entries DE could be the first or second notification messages themselves. In both cases, the environmental influence can be determined from the sum of the data entries.

[0129] In this way, a data set DS can be generated which comprises several data entries DE which originate from several first reporting messages and several second reporting messages.

[0130] However, since the first and second reporting messages are not received synchronously with a refueling process, it can be provided that the data entries DE are created at any time, if necessary also taking into account several first reporting messages and / or several second reporting messages.

[0131] For example, the data entries can be created periodically or only at a review point when the step of determining the environmental impact of the vehicle is carried out.

[0132] As soon as at least one data entry DE or the data set DS is available, all variants described above for Figures 1 to 4 can also be implemented in the method of Figure 5. In particular, the steps of sending the first notification message, sending the second notification message, and creating the data entry for at least one further refueling process can be carried out from the first commissioning of the vehicle and repeated for each refueling process of the vehicle, and if necessary, a life cycle analysis can be carried out. Furthermore, the threshold comparisons mentioned above can be carried out, and if necessary, a blocking signal can be sent to the vehicle after the threshold is exceeded, whereby the vehicle cannot continue driving after receiving the blocking message or can only continue driving in a mode with restricted power.

[0133] In the variant of Figure 5, however, it is usually not provided that an alarm signal is issued when the data processing unit receives a second reporting message for which there is no first reporting message, since, as stated above, the absence of a second reporting message is considered to be a "worst case" environmental impact when refueling a fuel.

[0134] In the variant of Figure 5, it is shown that the data processing unit 9 is located on the vehicle 1. Analogous to Figure 1, however, the data processing unit 9 could also be located in a server 6. The certificates zertl, zert2 explained for Figures 1 to 3, or the embedding of the data processing unit 9 in a secure element, could also be provided in Figure 4.

[0135] In all the embodiments described above, it was assumed that the sensor unit 10 detects a refueling process. However, it could also be provided that the sensor unit 10 detects a withdrawal process or consumption, as explained below.

[0136] If the sensor unit 10 is to detect a withdrawal process, the sensor unit 10 can, for example, be designed to detect a fluid flow (or current flow if the fuel is electricity) through a withdrawal line via which the fuel is withdrawn from the energy storage device, in which case the sensor unit 10 can, for example, be a mass flow meter. Here, too, the sensor unit 10 can determine the mass or volume of the withdrawn fuel. To determine the withdrawal, however, the sensor unit 10 could also be designed as a fill level sensor in the vehicle tank 2. The quantity of electrical fuel, for example in kWh, could also be measured using electrical means. A lowering of the fluid level in the vehicle tank by the fill level sensor or a change in the charge level of the battery can be interpreted as a withdrawal process.

[0137] If the sensor unit 10 is intended to determine consumption, the sensor unit 10 can, for example, be a valve of an injection nozzle, wherein the degree of opening of the valve defines the consumption. In the present case, determining consumption is understood in particular to mean that a withdrawal line is connected to the energy storage device and led to a consumer such as an engine or a fuel cell. This allows the consumer to be operated with the fuel stored in the energy storage device (this can also be provided in particular if the sensor unit 10 is intended to detect a withdrawal process). Modern consumers already include corresponding sensor units 10 that can determine a corresponding consumption and also output it during operation.

[0138] If the sensor unit 10 detects a withdrawal or consumption of fuel, it will typically also measure the corresponding withdrawn or consumed quantity and include it in the second notification message. All of the embodiments explained above with regard to Figures 1 to 5 are also applicable if the sensor unit 10 detects the withdrawal or consumption, with the difference that the fuel indicated in the first notification message, which was actually refueled or reserved for refueling, is compared with the consumed or withdrawn fuel to determine the environmental impact.

[0139] In one example, the gas station reports, as described for Figure 1 or the overall system 100 as in Figure 5, that 20 liters of fuel have been refueled or reserved. At a first point in time, the sensor unit 10 measures that 10 liters of fuel have been withdrawn or consumed and reports this by means of a second report message. For this withdrawal or consumption, the environmental impact of the vehicle 1 can be determined as 10 liters of fuel, i.e., the first report message can be verified with this partial quantity. Afterwards, the sensor unit 10 can measure, for example, that another 10 liters of fuel have been withdrawn or consumed and include this in the second report message, so that the first report message can be verified as a whole and the environmental impact can be determined as another 10 liters or a total of 20 liters of fuel. If the sensor unit 10 measures a further withdrawal or consumption of, for example,If an additional 10 liters are consumed, this can be included in a second reporting message. However, since a first reporting message is no longer available for this additional quantity, an additional environmental impact is determined using a fictitious fuel with a "worst-case" environmental impact.

[0140] At this point, it should be noted that it is of course possible to refine the above-mentioned method as desired. For example, a loss of fuel could be detected because, for example, an electric battery loses charge when not in use, or because cryogenic fluid evaporates and is released into the environment when the vehicle 1 is stationary for an extended period. The loss could be detected by measuring the fill level after the vehicle 1 is switched off and before the vehicle 1 is started up, or by having an additional sensor unit in a line not connected to a consumer, such as a boil-off line. If the fuel is methane, for example, this would be released into the environment as CO2 after combustion and would then be released into the environment as methane via a leak in the boil-off line, which would have a greater environmental impact than combustion.This difference can be detected as specified above and taken into account accordingly when determining the environmental impact of vehicle 1. In other words, the additional sensor unit could detect a loss of fuel, whereby the loss can be included in a second reporting message or sent as a third reporting message to data processing unit 9, which can thus take the loss into account when determining the environmental impact of vehicle 1.

Claims

Claims:

1. A method for determining an environmental influence of a vehicle (1) in a system comprising the vehicle (1) and a data processing unit (9), wherein the vehicle (1) has an energy storage device, in particular a vehicle tank (2) for storing fluid fuel, and a sensor unit (10) which detects a refueling process, a withdrawal process or a consumption of the fuel, the method comprising the following steps: Selecting a desired fuel and sending a first message to the data processing unit (9), wherein the first message comprises a fueled or to be fueled quantity and a characteristic value of an environmental impact, in particular a CO2 balance, of the selected fuel or an identification of the origin of the selected fuel, in the vehicle (1), when the sensor unit (10) detects a refueling process, a withdrawal process or a consumption of the fuel, sending a second message to the data processing unit (9), - Determining the environmental impact of the vehicle (1) on the basis of the information provided in the first reporting message, wherein the second reporting message is preferably used to verify the first reporting message or to determine an additional environmental impact, a) wherein the environmental impact of the vehicle (1) is determined as a characteristic value of the environmental impact, in particular the CO2 balance, of the fuel with which the vehicle (1) was refueled during one or more refueling processes or which was removed or consumed by the vehicle (1), wherein after the step of determining the environmental impact of the vehicle (1), the following step is carried out: Checking whether the characteristic value of the environmental impact of the refueled fuel is below or above a predetermined threshold value;or b) wherein the environmental impact of the vehicle (1) is determined as a weighted average of the characteristic value of the environmental impact, in particular the CO2 balance, of at least two fuels with which the vehicle (1) was refuelled during several refuelling processes or which were withdrawn or consumed by the vehicle (1), wherein after the step of determining the environmental impact of the vehicle (1) the following step is carried out: checking whether the weighted average of the characteristic value of the environmental impact of the refuelled fuel is below or above a predetermined threshold value, wherein the method further comprises the following step:; Sending a message from the data processing unit (9) to a control unit of the vehicle (1) if the checking step showed that the characteristic value of the environmental impact or the weighted average of the characteristic value of the environmental impact of the fuel refuelled, withdrawn or consumed is below or above a predetermined threshold value, wherein the vehicle (1) cannot continue driving after receiving the message, can only continue driving over a predetermined distance or period of time or can only do so in a mode with limited power and / or limited function.

2. Method according to claim 1, comprising the step: in the data processing unit (9), receiving the first notification message and the second notification message and, if the first notification message could be correlated with the second notification message and thus verified, creating a data entry (DE) comprising the vehicle identification and the characteristic value of the environmental impact of the fuel or the identification of the origin of the fuel.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the sensor unit (10) measures the amount of fuel refueled, withdrawn or consumed and the measured amount is included in the second notification message, wherein the step of determining the environmental impact of the vehicle (1) comprises the following steps: - Determining a first environmental impact based on the characteristic value specified in the at least one first notification message or the identification of the origin, - determining the additional environmental impact based on a difference between a quantity of fuel specified in the second notification message and the quantity of fuel specified in the first notification message, - Determining the environmental impact of the vehicle as the sum of the first environmental impact and the additional environmental impact, wherein the method preferably further comprises the following step: - Create a data entry (DE) comprising the first environmental impact and the additional environmental impact.

4. Method according to claim 2 or 3, comprising the steps: in the data processing unit (9), creating a separate data entry (DE) for each received first notification message and creating a separate data entry (DE) for each received second notification message.

5. Method according to one of claims 2 to 4, comprising the steps: Sending a further second notification message and creating the data entry (DE) for at least one further refuelling process, withdrawal process or consumption of the fuel of the same vehicle (1), wherein all data entries (DE) of a vehicle (1) are stored in a common data set (DS), and - Determining the environmental impact of the vehicle (1) on the basis of the data set (DS) with at least two data entries (DE) belonging to the same vehicle (1).

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the steps of sending the first notification message, sending the second notification message and creating the data entry (DE) or the data entries (DE) are carried out for at least one further refueling process, withdrawal process or consumption of the fuel from a first start-up of the vehicle (1) and are repeated for each refueling process, withdrawal process or consumption of the fuel of the vehicle (1).

7. Method according to one of claims 2 to 6 for carrying out a life cycle analysis, wherein the step of determining the environmental impact of the vehicle (1) comprises the following steps: - determining an environmental impact arising during the manufacture of the vehicle (1), and Adding the environmental impact caused during the manufacture of the vehicle (1) and an environmental impact caused by the fuel according to all data entries (DE) for this vehicle (1).

8. Method according to one of claims 1 to 9, comprising the step of: issuing an alarm signal when the data processing unit (9) receives a second notification message for which there is no first notification message.

9. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 10, wherein the system further comprises a petrol station (3) and the petrol station (3) detects the vehicle identification of the vehicle (1) to be refuelled before sending the first notification message and includes this in the first notification message and the data processing unit (9) correlates the first notification message and the second notification message based on the vehicle identification.

10. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 11, wherein the data processing unit (9) is present in a server (6), wherein a transceiver (7) of a petrol station (3) or a petrol station system (100) sends the first notification message to the server (6), and wherein the vehicle (1) has a transceiver (8) which sends the second notification message to the server (6).

11. The method according to claim 1 to 10, wherein the data processing unit (9) is present on the vehicle (1) and a transceiver (7) of a petrol station (3) or a petrol station system (100) sends the first notification message to a transceiver (8) on the vehicle (1) connected to the data processing unit (9), wherein the data processing unit (9) is preferably present in a secure element.

12. Method according to one of claims 1 to 11, comprising the steps: Depositing a certificate (cert, cert2) at a petrol station (3) or in the vehicle (1), wherein the certificate (cert) is sent to the data processing unit (9) as part of the first reporting message or second reporting message; and - Checking the authenticity of the certificate (zertl, zert2) in the data processing unit (9) before determining the environmental impact of the vehicle (1) or generating the data entry (DE).

13. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 12, wherein a further sensor unit detects a loss of fuel, in particular a release of the fuel to the environment, and wherein the release detected by the further sensor unit is taken into account when determining the environmental influence.

14. A method for determining an environmental influence of a vehicle (1) in a system comprising the vehicle (1) and a data processing unit (9), wherein a filling station system (100) is provided, into which a first fuel (fluid 1) and a second fuel (fluid 2) are introduced, wherein it is known how much first fuel (fluid 1) and how much second fuel (fluid 2) is located in this filling station system (100), wherein the vehicle (1) has an energy storage device, in particular a vehicle tank (2) for storing fluid fuel, and a sensor unit (10) which detects a refueling process, a withdrawal process or a consumption of the fuel, wherein the method comprises the following steps: Selection of a desired fuel by the user by reserving a fuel from the petrol station system (100) and sending a first message to the data processing unit (9), wherein the first message comprises a fuelled or to be fuelled quantity of fuel and a characteristic value of an environmental impact, in particular a CO2 balance, of the selected fuel or an identification of the origin of the selected fuel, wherein the Sending the first message asynchronously to an actual refueling process in the vehicle (1) when the sensor unit (10) detects a refueling process, a withdrawal process or a consumption of the fuel, sending a second message to the data processing unit (9), - determining the environmental influence of the vehicle (1) on the basis of the information provided in the first reporting message, wherein the second reporting message is preferably used to verify the first reporting message or to determine an additional environmental influence.

15. The method according to claim 14, comprising the step: in the data processing unit (9), receiving the first notification message and the second notification message and, if the first notification message could be correlated with the second notification message and thus verified, creating a data entry (DE) comprising the vehicle identification and the characteristic value of the environmental impact of the fuel or the identification of the origin of the fuel.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the sensor unit (10) measures the amount of fuel refuelled, withdrawn or consumed and the measured amount is included in the second notification message, wherein the step of determining the environmental impact of the vehicle (1) comprises the following steps: - Determining a first environmental impact based on the characteristic value specified in the at least one first notification message or the identification of the origin, - determining the additional environmental impact based on a difference between a quantity of fuel specified in the second notification message and the quantity of fuel specified in the first notification message, - Determining the environmental impact of the vehicle as the sum of the first environmental impact and the additional environmental impact, wherein the method preferably further comprises the following step: - Create a data entry (DE) comprising the first environmental impact and the additional environmental impact.

17. The method according to claim 15 or 16, comprising the steps: in the data processing unit (9), creating a separate data entry (DE) for each received first notification message and creating a separate data entry (DE) for each received second notification message.

18. Method according to one of claims 15 to 16, comprising the steps of: sending a further second notification message and creating the data entry (DE) for at least one further refueling process, withdrawal process or consumption of the fuel of the same vehicle (1), wherein all data entries (DE) of a vehicle (1) are stored in a common data set (DS), and - Determining the environmental impact of the vehicle (1) on the basis of the data set (DS) with at least two data entries (DE) belonging to the same vehicle (1).

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the steps of sending the first notification message, sending the second notification message and creating the data entry (DE) or the data entries (DE) are carried out for at least one further refueling process, withdrawal process or consumption of the fuel from a first start-up of the vehicle (1) and are repeated for each refueling process, withdrawal process or consumption of the fuel of the vehicle (1).

20. Method according to one of claims 15 to 19 for carrying out a life cycle analysis, wherein the step of determining the environmental impact of the vehicle (1) comprises the following steps: - determining an environmental impact arising during the manufacture of the vehicle (1), and Adding the environmental impact caused during the manufacture of the vehicle (1) and an environmental impact caused by the fuel according to all data entries (DE) for this vehicle (1).

21. Method according to one of claims 14 to 20, wherein the environmental impact of the vehicle (1) is determined as a characteristic value of the environmental impact, in particular the CO2 balance, of the fuel with which the vehicle (1) was refuelled during one or more refuelling operations or which was withdrawn or consumed by the vehicle (1), wherein after the step of determining the environmental impact of the vehicle (1), the following step is carried out: - Check whether the environmental impact index of the fuel being refuelled is below or above a predetermined threshold.

22. Method according to one of claims 14 to 20, wherein the environmental impact of the vehicle (1) is determined as a weighted average of the characteristic value of the environmental impact, in particular the CO2 balance, of at least two fuels with which the vehicle (1) was refuelled during several refuelling operations or which were removed or consumed by the vehicle (1), wherein after the step of determining the environmental impact of the vehicle (1), the following step is carried out: - Check whether the weighted average of the environmental impact index of the fuel being refuelled is below or above a predetermined threshold.

23. A method according to claim 21 or 22, comprising the step: Sending a message from the data processing unit (9) to a control unit of the vehicle (1) if the checking step showed that the characteristic value of the environmental impact or the weighted average of the characteristic value of the environmental impact of the fuel refueled, withdrawn or consumed is below or above a predetermined threshold value, wherein the vehicle (1) cannot continue driving after receiving the message, can only drive over a predetermined distance or time period or can only drive in a mode with restricted power and / or restricted function.

24. A method according to any one of claims 14 to 23, comprising the step: Outputting an alarm signal when the data processing unit (9) receives a second message for which there is no first message.

25. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 24, wherein the system further comprises a petrol station (3) and the petrol station (3) detects the vehicle identification of the vehicle (1) to be refuelled before sending the first notification message and includes this in the first notification message and the data processing unit (9) correlates the first notification message and the second notification message based on the vehicle identification.

26. The method according to any one of claims 14 to 25, wherein the data processing unit (9) is present in a server (6), wherein a transceiver (7) of a petrol station (3) or a petrol station system (100) sends the first notification message to the server (6), and wherein the vehicle (1) has a transceiver (8) which sends the second notification message to the server (6).

27. The method according to claim 14 to 24, wherein the data processing unit (9) is present on the vehicle (1) and a transceiver (7) of a petrol station (3) or a petrol station system (100) transmits the first message to a Data processing unit (9) connected to the transceiver (8) on the vehicle (1), wherein the data processing unit (9) is preferably present in a secure element.

28. Method according to one of claims 14 to 27, comprising the steps of: depositing a certificate (cert, cert2) in a petrol station (3) or in the vehicle (1), wherein the certificate (cert) is sent to the data processing unit (9) as part of the first notification message or second notification message; and - Checking the authenticity of the certificate (zertl, zert2) in the data processing unit (9) before determining the environmental impact of the vehicle (1) or generating the data entry (DE).

29. Method according to one of claims 14 to 28, wherein a further sensor unit detects a loss of fuel, in particular a release of the fuel to the environment, and wherein the release detected by the further sensor unit is taken into account when determining the environmental influence.

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