The role of hydrogen cars in the economy of California

Hydrogen has been proposed as an alternative transportation fuel that could reduce energy consumption and eliminate tailpipe emissions when used in fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). To investigate the potential effects of hydrogen vehicles on California’s economy over the next two decades, we employed the modified Costs for Advanced Vehicles and Energy (CAVE) model and a California-specific computable general equilibrium model. Results indicate that, even in the aggressive scenario, hydrogen cars can only account for a minor fraction of the on-road fleet through 2030. Although new sales could drop sharply, conventional gasoline cars and carryover pre-2010 vehicles are still expected to dominate the on-road vehicle stock and consume the majority of transportation energy through 2030. Transportation energy consumption could decline dramatically, mainly because of the fuel economy advantage of FCVs over conventional cars. Both moderate and aggressive hydrogen scenarios are estimated to have a slightly negative influence on California’s economy. However, the negative economic impacts could be lessened as the market for hydrogen and FCVs builds up. Based on the economic optimization model, both hydrogen scenarios would have a negative economic impact on California’s oil refining sector and, as expected, a positive impact on the other directly related sectors that contribute to either hydrogen production or FCV manufacturing.     

Systematic planning to optimize investments in hydrogen infrastructure deployment

The introduction of hydrogen infrastructure and fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) to gradually replace gasoline internal combustion engine vehicles can provide environment and energy security benefits. The deployment of hydrogen fueling infrastructure to support the demonstration and commercialization of FCVs remains a critical barrier to transitioning to hydrogen as a transportation fuel. This study utilizes an engineering methodology referred to as the Spatially and Temporally Resolved Energy and Environment Tool (STREET) to demonstrate how systematic planning can optimize early investments in hydrogen infrastructure in a way that supports and encourages growth in the deployment of FCVs while ensuring that the associated environment and energy security benefits are fully realized. Specifically, a case study is performed for the City of Irvine, California – a target area for FCV deployment – to determine the optimized number and location of hydrogen fueling stations required to provide a bridge to FCV commercialization, the preferred rollout strategy for those stations, and the environmental impact associated with three near-term scenarios for hydrogen production and distribution associated with local and regional sources of hydrogen available to the City. Furthermore, because the State of California has adopted legislation imposing environmental standards for hydrogen production, results of the environmental impact assessment for hydrogen production and distribution scenarios are measured against the California standards. The results show that significantly fewer hydrogen fueling stations are required to provide comparable service to the existing gasoline infrastructure, and that key community statistics are needed to inform the preferred rollout strategy for the stations. Well-to-wheel (WTW) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, urban criteria pollutants, energy use, and water use associated with hydrogen and FCVs can be significantly reduced in comparison to the average parc of gasoline vehicles regardless of whether hydrogen is produced and distributed with an emphasis on conventional resources (e.g., natural gas), or on local, renewable resources. An emphasis on local renewable resources to produce hydrogen further reduces emissions, energy use, and water use associated with hydrogen and FCVs compared to an emphasis on conventional resources. All three hydrogen production and distribution scenarios considered in the study meet California's standards for well-to-wheel GHG emissions, and well-to-tank emissions of urban ROG and NO_X. Two of the three scenarios also meet California's standard that 33% of hydrogen must be produced from renewable feedstocks. Overall, systematic planning optimizes both the economic and environmental impact associated with the deployment of hydrogen infrastructure and FCVs.     

Analysis of Ontario's hydrogen economy demands from hydrogen fuel cell vehicles

The ‘Hydrogen Economy’ is a proposed system where hydrogen is produced from carbon dioxide free energy sources and is used as an alternative fuel for transportation. The utilization of hydrogen to power fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) can significantly decrease air pollutants and greenhouse gases emission from the transportation sector. In order to build the future hydrogen economy, there must be a significant development in the hydrogen infrastructure, and huge investments will be needed for the development of hydrogen production, storage, and distribution technologies. This paper focuses on the analysis of hydrogen demand from hydrogen FCVs in Ontario, Canada, and the related cost of hydrogen. Three potential hydrogen demand scenarios over a long period of time were projected to estimate hydrogen FCVs market penetration, and the costs associated with the hydrogen production, storage and distribution were also calculated. A sensitivity analysis was implemented to investigate the uncertainties of some parameters on the design of the future hydrogen infrastructure. It was found that the cost of hydrogen is very sensitive to electricity price, but other factors such as water price, energy efficiency of electrolysis, and plant life have insignificant impact on the total cost of hydrogen produced.     

Prospects for introducing hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in Malaysia

Sustainable economic development through adoption of hydrogen pathway is expected to simultaneously solve the double challenge of environment and energy security. The momentum of current research in this area is focused on optimizing the potential benefits in transportation sector through introduction of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). However the rapid adoption of critical cleaner energy system is still problematic in developing countries especially in transportation. This article sheds light on the Malaysian case by highlighting related issues and obstacles, and discusses the future prospects of hydrogen FCV. We argue that innovation and technological advancement of hydrogen FCV is important and ready for introduction in Malaysia; however it is not sufficient in explaining the conditions that will allow for rapid transition in Malaysia. The main message of this article is that hydrogen FCV in Malaysia can be expected and is possible when there is a thorough understanding of energy security issues, where energy policy integration for economic development and environmental objectives are achieved at the same time. The understanding of specific problems from the standpoint of developing country is crucial in encouraging government policies to induce development of hydrogen FCV.     

Potential energy and greenhouse gas emission effects of hydrogen production from coke oven gas in U.S. steel mills

For this study, we examined the energy and emission effects of hydrogen production from coke oven gas (COG) on a well-to-wheels basis and compared these effects with those of other hydrogen production options, as well as with those of conventional gasoline and diesel options. We then estimated the magnitude of hydrogen production from COG in the United States and the number of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) that could potentially be fueled with the hydrogen produced from COG. Our analysis shows that this production pathway can achieve energy and greenhouse gas emission reduction benefits. This pathway is especially worth considering because first, the sources of COG are concentrated in the upper Midwest and in the Northeast United States, which would facilitate relatively cost-effective collection, transportation, and distribution of the produced hydrogen to refueling stations in these regions. Second, the amount of hydrogen that could be produced may fuel about 1.7 million cars, thus providing a vital near-term hydrogen production option for FCV applications.     

Market penetration of fuel cell vehicles – Analysis based on agent behaviour

This paper discusses the market penetration of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) in Germany from the perspectives of different stakeholders. There are several economic studies and models describing the introduction of hydrogen-powered vehicles, but most of them focus on only one segment of the car market. Most studies analyse the impacts of FCVs on the automotive industry or the demand for FCVs separately, while others look at the required hydrogen infrastructure, but none of these analyses examines the car market as a whole. The analysis takes into account the actions of the whole market (consumers, automotive manufacturers, filling station owners and policymakers) and their interactions.     

Lifecycle performance assessment of fuel cell/battery electric vehicles

This paper has performed an assessment of lifecycle (as known as well-to-wheels, WTW) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy consumption of a fuel cell vehicle (FCV). The simulation tool MATLAB/Simulink is employed to examine the real-time behaviors of an FCV, which are used to determine the energy efficiency and the fuel economy of the FCV. Then, the GREET (Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation) model is used to analyze the fuel-cycle energy consumption and GHG emissions for hydrogen fuels. Three potential pathways of hydrogen production for FCV application are examined, namely, steam reforming of natural gas, water electrolysis using grid electricity, and water electrolysis using photovoltaic (PV) electricity, respectively. Results show that the FCV has the maximum system efficiency of 60%, which occurs at about 25% of the maximum net system power. In addition, the FCVs fueled with PV electrolysis hydrogen could reduce about 99.2% energy consumption and 46.6% GHG emissions as compared to the conventional gasoline vehicles (GVs). However, the lifecycle energy consumption and GHG emissions of the FCVs fueled with grid-electrolysis hydrogen are 35% and 52.8% respectively higher than those of the conventional GVs. As compared to the grid-based battery electric vehicles (BEVs), the FCVs fueled with reforming hydrogen from natural gas are about 79.0% and 66.4% in the lifecycle energy consumption and GHG emissions, respectively.     

Understanding the design and economics of distributed tri-generation systems for home and neighborhood refueling—Part I: Single family residence case studies

The potential benefits of hydrogen as a transportation fuel will not be achieved until hydrogen vehicles capture a substantial market share. However, although hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (FCV) technology has been making rapid progress, the lack of a hydrogen infrastructure remains a major barrier for FCV adoption and commercialization. The high cost of building an extensive hydrogen station network and the foreseeable low utilization in the near term discourages private investment. Based on the past experience of fuel infrastructure development for motor vehicles, innovative, distributed, small-volume hydrogen refueling methods may be required to refuel FCVs in the near term. Among small-volume refueling methods, home and neighborhood tri-generation systems (systems that produce electricity and heat for buildings, as well as hydrogen for vehicles) stand out because the technology is available and has potential to alleviate consumer's fuel availability concerns. In addition, it has features attractive to consumers such as convenience and security to refuel at home or in their neighborhood.The objective of this paper is to provide analytical tools for various stakeholders such as policy makers, manufacturers and consumers, to evaluate the design and the technical, economic, and environmental performances of tri-generation systems for home and neighborhood refueling. An interdisciplinary framework and an engineering/economic model is developed and applied to assess home tri-generation systems for single family residences (case studies on neighborhood systems will be provided in a later paper). Major tasks include modeling yearly system operation, exploring the optimal size of a system, estimating the cost of electricity, heat and hydrogen, and system CO₂ emissions, and comparing the results to alternatives. Sensitivity analysis is conducted, and the potential impacts of uncertainties in energy prices, capital cost reduction (or increase), government incentives and environmental cost are evaluated. Policy implications of the modeling results are also explored.     

The impact of fuel cell vehicle deployment on road transport greenhouse gas emissions: The China case

Considerable attention has been paid to energy security and climate problems caused by road vehicle fleets. Fuel cell vehicles provide a new solution for reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, especially those from heavy-duty trucks. Although cost may become the key issue in fuel cell vehicle development, with technological improvements and cleaner pathways for hydrogen production, fuel cell vehicles will exhibit great potential of cost reduction. In accordance with the industrial plan in China, this study introduces five scenarios to evaluate the impact of fuel cell vehicles on the road vehicle fleet greenhouse gas emissions in China. Under the most optimistic scenario, greenhouse gas emissions generated by the whole fleet will decrease by 13.9% compared with the emissions in a scenario with no fuel cell vehicles, and heavy-duty truck greenhouse gas emissions will decrease by nearly one-fifth. Greenhouse gas emissions intensity of hydrogen production will play an essential role when fuel cell vehicles' fuel cycle greenhouse gas emissions are calculated; therefore, hydrogen production pathways will be critical in the future.     

Deployment of fuel cell vehicles in China: Greenhouse gas emission reductions from converting the heavy-duty truck fleet from diesel and natural gas to hydrogen

Hydrogen fuel cells, as an energy source for heavy duty vehicles, are gaining attention as a potential carbon mitigation strategy. Here we calculate the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the Chinese heavy-duty truck fleet under four hydrogen fuel cell heavy-duty truck penetration scenarios from 2020 through 2050. We introduce Aggressive, Moderate, Conservative and No Fuel Cell Vehicle (No FCV) scenarios. Under these four scenarios, the market share of heavy-duty trucks powered by fuel cells will reach 100%, 50%, 20% and 0%, respectively, in 2050. We go beyond previous studies which compared differences in GHG emissions from different hydrogen production pathways. We now combine an analysis of the carbon intensity of various hydrogen production pathways with predictions of the future hydrogen supply structure in China along with various penetration rates of heavy-duty fuel cell vehicles. We calculate the associated carbon intensity per vehicle kilometer travelled of the hydrogen used in heavy-duty trucks in each scenario, providing a practical application of our research. Our results indicate that if China relies only on fuel economy improvements, with the projected increase in vehicle miles travelled, the GHG emissions of the heavy-duty truck fleet will continue to increase and will remain almost unchanged after 2025. The Aggressive, Moderate and Conservative FCV Scenarios will achieve 63%, 30% and 12% reductions, respectively, in GHG emissions in 2050 from the heavy duty truck fleet compared to the No FCV Scenario. Additional reductions are possible if the current source of hydrogen from fossil fuels was displaced with increased use of hydrogen from water electrolysis using non-fossil generated electricity.     

燃料电池汽车氢能系统的环境、经济和能源评价

为了推动氢能系统评价工作的深入进行并为我国在近期发展燃料电池汽车氢能系统(包括燃料电池汽车及其氢源)提供有价值的参考，根据现有的生产、储存和输运氢的技术，设计了11种可行方案，运用生命周期评价方法对这些方案的环境性、经济性和能源利用情况进行了评价，得到了每种方案的分类环境效应指数、氢气总成本和总能量利用效率。结果表明，综合指标最优的燃料电池汽车氢能系统方案是：天然气集中制氢厂制氢，然后用汽车将装有氢气的高压钢瓶输运到加氢站，加注给以氢气为燃料的燃料电池汽车。     

Impact of urban development on residents’ public transportation travel energy consumption in China: An analysis of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles alternatives

Urban development has an important influence on the energy consumption of transportation. To develop public transportation is one of the important ways to decrease the energy consumption of urban transportation. It is very urgent to upgrade technology to reduce the energy consumption and emissions of the vehicles constantly. The popularization of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is the trend of the future automobile industry, which can effectively reduce traffic energy consumption and alleviate urban pollution. This article analyzes the impact of urban development on public transport and private transportation energy consumption from 2013 to 2015; and uses hydrogen fuel cell vehicles alternatives in urban public transport as a scenario. It shows that urban economic development can effectively reduce public transport. Population growth will increase greatly energy consumption of public transport, while larger cities with reasonable spatial density can reduce traffic energy consumption. Moreover, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can effectively reduce the energy consumption and pollution emissions of urban transportation during operating. Based on the above conclusions, this article will eventually provide targeted recommendations for the development of Chinese cities, public transport, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.     

世界各国加快氢能源市场化步伐——记第18届世界氢能大会(WHEC 2010)

2010年5月在德国埃森召开的"第18届世界氢能大会"上,来自美国、德国、日本、中国等国家的代表介绍了各自国家最新的氢能进展。中国科技部部长万钢出席大会并发言指出:中国要制订国家氢能规划,加大对氢能的投入,扩大氢能示范和应用,加强氢能的国际合作。美国能源部Nancy L Garland博士和Michacel Mills介绍了美国氢能的总体情况,指出:目前美国每年生产5000×104m3氢气,拥有氢气管道3000km以上,现有氢燃料电池轿车230多辆,氢燃料电池公共汽车130多辆,加氢站约200座。在燃料电池商业化方面,美国仍存在着技术上和经济性方面的障碍。在2007~2010财政年度,美国通过立法和各类货款、补贴,进一步加大了对氢能的扶持力度,美国能源部多次联合其他机构,召开氢能基础设施研讨会,就降低燃料电池成本、氢能政策、税收、碳税、氢能信息和教育、燃料电池革新方向,以及新的商业模式等进行讨论。目前,美国加州是美国最积极推进氢燃料电池技术与示范的州,该州预计于2016~2018年,其氢燃料电池轿车数量将达到54300辆,并计划进一步发展氢能高速公路。德国国家全资公司NOW公司总经理波霍夫博士等人介绍了德国的氢能进展。主要内容包括:德国准备到2015年,共建造1000座加氢站,将为10×104辆氢燃料电池车提供氢气;德国在氢气来源方面,2020年以前主要来源于副产氢气和天然气制氢,2030年以后主要依靠煤制氢(集合CO2捕集)、风能制氢、生物质能制氢等。日本为了尽快研发、推广燃料电池车,采取了全额投入经费的办法,委托日本产业省(METI)的全资公司VEDO公司负责管理"日本氢能和燃料电池示范项目(JHFC)",该项目的目标之一,就是到2025年,在全日本建立1000座加氢站。     

Recent challenges of hydrogen storage technologies for fuel cell vehicles

Fuel cell vehicles have a high potential to reduce both energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. However, due to the low density, hydrogen gas limits the amount of hydrogen stored on board. This restriction also prevents wide penetration of fuel cells. Hydrogen storage is the key technology towards the hydrogen society. Currently high-pressure tanks and liquid hydrogen tanks are used for road tests, but both technologies do not meet all the requirements of future fuel cell vehicles. This paper briefly explains the current status of conventional technologies (simple containment) such as high-pressure tank systems and cryogenic storage. Another method, hydrogen-absorbing alloy has been long investigated but it has several difficulties for the vehicle applications such as low temperature discharge characteristics and quick charge capability due to its reaction heat. We tested a new idea of combining metal hydride and high pressure. It will solve some difficulties and improve performance such as gravimetric density. This paper describes the latest material and system development.     

Fuel cells for road transportation purposes — yes or no?

The issues surrounding the application of fuel cells for road transportation are evaluated. The advantages and disadvantages of the candidate fuel-cell systems and the various fuels are discussed, together with the issue of whether the fuel should be converted directly in the fuel cell or should be first converted to hydrogen on-board the vehicle. Developments in competing vehicles technologies, namely, internal-combustion-engined vehicles (ICEVs), pure-battery vehicles (EVs) and ICE–battery hybrid vehicles (HEVs) are reviewed. Finally, the impact of the introduction of fuel-cell vehicles (FCVs) on industry, and in particular on the oil and automotive industries, is examined. For FCVs to compete successfully with conventional ICEVs, it is concluded that direct-conversion fuel cells — using probably hydrogen, but possibly methanol — are the only realistic contenders for road transportation applications.     

The fuel cell electric vehicles: The highlight review

Transportation sector is the important sector and consumed the most fossil fuel in the world. Since COVID-19 started in 2019, this sector had become the world connector because every country relies on logistics. The transportation sector does not only deal with the human transportation but also relates to logistics. Research in every country has searched for alternative transportation to replace internal combustion engines using fossil fuel, one of the most prominent choices is fuel cells. Fuel cells can use hydrogen as fuel. Hydrogen can be fed to the fuel cells to provide electric power to drive vehicles, no greenhouse gas emission and no direct combustion required. The fuel cells have been developed widely as the 21st century energy-conservation devices for mobile, stationary, and especially vehicles. The fuel cell electric vehicles using hydrogen as fuel were also called hydrogen fuel cell vehicles or hydrogen electric vehicles. The fuel cells were misconceived by several people that they were batteries, but the fuel cells could provide electric power continuously if their fuel was provided continuously. The batteries could provide electric power as their only capacities, when all ions are released, no power could be provided. Because the fuel cell vehicles play important roles for our future transportation, the overall review for these vehicles is significantly interesting. This overall review can provide general and technical information, variety of readers; vehicle users, manufacturers, and scientists, can perceive and understand the fuel cell vehicles within this review. The readers can realize how important the fuel cell technologies are and support research around the world to drive the fuel cell vehicles to be the leading vehicles in our sustainable developing world.     

Economical planning of fuel cell vehicle-to-grid integrated green buildings with a new hybrid optimization algorithm

Popularity of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCVs) is an important criterion for solving the global problem of reducing CO₂ emissions. However, the overall cost of FCVs and hydrogen fuel production is relatively high, so FCV promotion is slow. Considering that FCVs have near-zero CO₂ emissions and high endurance, which is suitable for vehicle-to-grid (V2G) systems, this study aims to analyze the economic potential of the fuel cell vehicle-to-grid (FCV2G) systems to promote FCVs to the highest level. For this purpose, a large-scale green building was first selected as the research target and an agent to provide V2G services for the power grid. Then, Monte Carlo method was used to simulate the vehicle visiting time. A discharge model was also developed. Considering CO₂ emission price and self-elasticity coefficient of discharge price, an overall economic optimization model was presented. Then, the hybrid algorithm of competitive swarm optimization (CSO) and imperialist competitive algorithm (ICA) was applied to optimize the model, which not only led to definite results and reduced standard deviation, but also eliminated the weakness of the CSO, i.e., convergence speed and poor performance in some benchmark functions. The simulation results indicated the proposed algorithm had faster convergence and more accuracy in finding the optimal solution than other optimization algorithms. Moreover, the overall economic profit improved in the presence of FCVs. Finally, sensitivity analysis was performed on six parameters, including daily electricity price, battery cost, fuel cell cost, CO₂ emission price, power grid carbon emission, and hydrogen cost. The results showed FCV2G system had high development potential as well as great economic profit increasing over time.     

Fuel cell and battery electric vehicles compared

Several alternative vehicle and fuel options are under consideration to alleviate the triple threats of climate change, urban air pollution and foreign oil dependence caused by motor vehicles. This paper evaluates the primary transportation alternatives and determines which hold the greatest potential for averting societal threats. We developed a dynamic computer simulation model that compares the societal benefits of replacing conventional gasoline cars with vehicles that are partially electrified, including hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrids fueled by gasoline, cellulosic ethanol and hydrogen, and all-electric vehicles powered exclusively by batteries or by hydrogen and fuel cells. These simulations compare the year-by-year societal benefits over a 100-year time horizon of each vehicle/fuel combination compared to conventional cars. We conclude that all-electric vehicles will be required in combination with hybrids, plug-in hybrids and biofuels to achieve an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels, while simultaneously cutting dependence on imported oil and eliminating nearly all controllable urban air pollution from the light duty vehicle fleet. Hybrids and plug-ins that continue to use an internal combustion engine will not be adequate by themselves to achieve our societal objectives, even if they are powered with biofuels.     

Hydrogen economy for a sustainable development: state-of-the-art and technological perspectives

Sustainable energy is becoming of increasing concern world-wide. The rapid growth of global climate changes along with the fear of energy supply shortage is creating a large consensus about the potential benefits of a hydrogen economy coming from renewable energy sources. The interesting perspectives are over-shadowed by uncertainties about the development of key technologies, such as renewable energy sources, advanced production processes, fuel cells, metal hydrides, nanostructures, standards and codes, and so on. The availability of critical technologies can create a base for the start of the hydrogen economy, as a fuel and energy carrier alternative to the current fossil resources. This paper will explore the rationale for such a revolution in the energy sector, will describe the state-of-the-art of major related technologies (fuel cell, storage systems, fuel cell vehicles) and current niche applications, and will sketch scientific and technological challenges and recommendations for research and development (R&D) initiatives to accelerate the pace for the widespread introduction of a hydrogen economy.     

Efficiencies of hydrogen storage systems onboard fuel cell vehicles

Energy efficiency, vehicle weight, driving range, and fuel economy are compared among fuel cell vehicles (FCV) with different types of fuel storage and battery-powered electric vehicles. Three options for onboard fuel storage are examined and compared in order to evaluate the most energy efficient option of storing fuel in fuel cell vehicles: compressed hydrogen gas storage, metal hydride storage, and onboard reformer of methanol. Solar energy is considered the primary source for fair comparison of efficiencies for true zero emission vehicles. Component efficiencies are from the literature. The battery powered electric vehicle has the highest efficiency of conversion from solar energy for a driving range of 300 miles. Among the fuel cell vehicles, the most efficient is the vehicle with onboard compressed hydrogen storage. The compressed gas FCV is also the leader in four other categories: vehicle weight for a given range, driving range for a given weight, efficiency starting with fossil fuels, and miles per gallon equivalent (about equal to a hybrid electric) on urban and highway driving cycles.