Joel Löfving

Research

Researcher specialized in assessing future renewable energy systems from a societal perspective, especially focusing on transportation. I perform technology systems evaluations and policy analysis in this space, both by building large-scale energy and environmental assessment models across different frameworks and computer architectures, and performing qualitative assessments, interviews, and workshops.

Currently pursuing a PhD in Transportation and Energy Systems at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden. International research experience includes 2025-2026 Fulbright Scholarship at UC Davis, and extended research visits at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and California State University LA.

Publications

• Resource requirements and consequences of large-scale hydrogen use in Europe

  Joel Löfving, Selma Brynolf, Maria Grahn, Simon Öberg, Maria Taljegard

  Nature Sustainability, 2026. DOI: 10.1038/s41893-026-01771-5

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  As European countries transition to fuels with lower climate change impact, distinct challenges may arise. Electrolytic hydrogen is central to planned developments in transportation and industry, but large-scale hydrogen production could have energy and environmental consequences. Here we simulate site-specific hydrogen demand distribution for Europe in 2050, to assess possible effects on local water use risks, regional electricity generation composition and cost, and total land use. Results show that around 20% of annual water use for hydrogen production is simulated to happen in areas with ‘extremely high’ projected risk of water stress, and local water stress caused by hydrogen production could become severe. Widespread electrolytic hydrogen use requires large investments in electricity generation, but the impacts on the marginal electricity cost to consumers could be small. The electricity generation system required for producing hydrogen or e-fuels would require less land than cultivating biomass for biofuels. The findings highlight the need for coordinated policy action to ensure that hydrogen deployment aligns with local water availability, regional electricity system development, land constraints and broader sustainability goals.

• Vätgasens roll i energi- och klimatomställningen

  Julia Renström, Selma Brynolf, Maria Grahn, Sara Hugestam, Elin Lindblad, Joel Löfving, Martin Görling, Mikael Odenberger, Maria Taljegård, Bezawit Tsegai, Jorge Velandia Vargas, Jenny Westerberg, Katja Åström och Erik Östling

  Energiforsk report 2026:1171, 2026.

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  Hydrogen and hydrogen-based electrofuels are often highlighted as strategically important for Sweden’s and Europe’s energy and climate transition. They can help reduce emissions in sectors that are difficult to electrify directly, create new opportunities for sector coupling, and have the potential to increase flexibility in the energy system and strengthen security of supply. At the same time, large-scale introduction of hydrogen brings significant opportunities and challenges for the electricity system, resource use, infrastructure, and the national economy. In the project The Role of Hydrogen in the Energy and Climate Transition (VREK), various development pathways for hydrogen and electrofuels have been analyzed. The aim has been to increase understanding of the roles that hydrogen and electrofuels may play in Sweden’s energy and climate transition, as well as the conditions and consequences that different development paths entail for the energy system and society at large. The report explores a potential range of possible development trajectories, and the analysis highlights how technical, economic, institutional, and actor-related factors interact to drive hydrogen development in different directions. The ambition is to provide a knowledge base that can be used by industry, energy companies, public actors, and policymakers in making strategic choices regarding the role of hydrogen in Sweden.

• Geospatial distribution of hydrogen demand and refueling infrastructure for long-haul trucks in Europe

  Joel Löfving, Selma Brynolf, Maria Grahn

  International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 2025. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2025.04.257

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  Using hydrogen as a fuel is one option to reduce impact on climate and environment from heavy-duty road transportation. However, the deployment of a hydrogen refueling network is a major bottleneck. To facilitate this development, it is crucial to better understand appropriate location and sizing of hydrogen refueling stations (HRS). We present a bottom-up, geographically detailed model for simulating energy demand from long-haul hydrogen trucks and determining locations and sizes of HRSs, across all of Europe under different scenarios in 2050. The model, called SVENG, calculates weighted energy demand for network links, considering specific local conditions on each link along the route. These are used by a search algorithm for distributing demand along individual routes and simulate HRS locations and sizes. The model scales linearly, supporting large networks; for this study using 0.6 million rows of origin-destination cargo flow data on a network of 17,000 nodes. We show that the model's novel functionality for calculating dynamic vehicle power requirements has a large impact on the distribution of fuel demand and required refueling infrastructure. Results are compared to the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation (AFIR) for 2030, showing that this legislation might require more HRS than necessary even in 2050 in some countries, unless vehicle sales increase rapidly. Other countries may need to deploy more capacity by 2050 even at lower rates of adoption.

• Consequences of large-scale hydrogen use in the European transportation sector – geospatial modeling of infrastructure, electricity costs, water risk, and land use

  Joel Löfving

  Thesis for the degree of Licentiate of Engineering, 2025.

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  This thesis analyses potential consequences of future hydrogen use and production across Europe, in transportation including trucks, shipping, aviation, and industries including steel, ammonia, high value chemicals, and fuel production.

• Environmental and socio-economic benefits of circularity in real estate management

  Tomas Rydberg, Johanna Andersson, Hanna Gerhardsson, Eva Kultje, Adam Levrén, Carina Loh Lindholm, Joel Löfving, Sandra Moberg

  E3S Web Conf., 2022. DOI: 10.1051/e3sconf/202234901010

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  The environmental potential of reusing interior and building products (notably furniture, lighting, doors, windows, flooring and ceilings) has been calculated by a rather basic model based on life cycle approach. By making a calculation model available to housing and renovation companies in Sweden, a total of over 43000 items have been included in calculations as objects for reuse, stemming from about 130 renovation projects with a total waste saving of 800 tonnes of waste in the renovation stage. The first calculations of the corresponding avoided climate impact, from avoided waste management and avoided new product extraction and manufacturing, corresponds to around 1600 tonnes of CO2-equivalents. Translating this and other environmental aspects to monetary values with the EPS system, socioeconomic savings is around 2.3 million Euro. Assuming the same composition of items for potential reuse from all renovation activities in Sweden and extrapolating to the total annual amount of building waste, the potential annual savings on the national scale is estimated to be 900000 tons of building waste and 1.3 million tons of CO2 equivalents, corresponding to around 7% of the total annual greenhouse gas emissions of the Swedish building sector. With the EPS evaluation, the total annual environmental benefit adds up to 600 million Euro. The calculation model is currently being refined to include a better coverage of logistics and refurbishment activities.

Policy Contributions

• Yttrande angående Promemorian Stöd till laddnings- och tankningsinfrastruktur för tunga transporter [KN2025/01701]

  Joel Löfving, Selma Brynolf, Jonas Sjöblom

  Consultation response to the Swedish Government on behalf of Chalmers University of Technology, 2025. View document →

• Yttrande angående Promemoria om Hållbarhetskriterier för vissa bränslen och en ny reduktionsplikt [KN2024/01751]

  Jonas Sjöblom, Tomas Grönstedt, Maria Grahn, Joel Löfving

  Consultation response to the Swedish Government on behalf of Chalmers University of Technology, 2024. View document →

Projects

Funding, Honors & Awards

• 2025-

  2026

  Vinnova Grant (Sweden's Innovation Agency), grant no: 2025-04048

  Project title: SENITH - Sharing Experiences to Navigate the Introduction of Trucks using Hydrogen
  Total budget: 1.4 MSEK (~150 kUSD).

• Fulbright program research exchange at UC Davis Institute for Transportation Studies (2025-2026)
  • 2024

    Fulbright Scholarship

    50 000 SEK (~5 200 USD).

  • 2024

    Barbro Osher Endowment

    243 500 SEK (~25 500 USD).

  • 2025

    Roland Nilsson Scholarship (Sweden-America Foundation)

    20 000 SEK (~2 100 USD).

  • 2024

    TechForH2 Competence Center - Travel Funding

    75 000 SEK (~7 900 USD).

  • 2025

    A.H. Lindfors Scholarship

    50 000 SEK (~5 200 USD).

• Research exchange at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (2023)
  • 2023

    Göran Wallberg Memorial Scholarship

    50 000 SEK (~5 200 USD).

  • 2023

    A.H. Lindfors Scholarship

    40 000 SEK (~4 200 USD).

• 2026

  Royal & Hvitfeldtska scholarship

  For attending iTEM8, Paris, and WCTR2026, Toulouse. 38 000 SEK (~4 260 USD)

• 2025 &

  2026

  Dardel Allocation

  20 000 core hours/month on the KTH supercomputer.

• 2024

  Erasmus Grant

  For attending iTEM7 at the UN Palace of Nations, Geneva. 1 175 EUR (~1 260 USD).

• 2023

  Avanade "Do What Matters" Award

  For outstanding work in developing a sustainability data platform at Accenture. More info here.

Teaching

Contact