Economic And Ecological Analysis Of Hydrogen Storage Systems

Abstract

Within the decarbonization of the mobility sector, fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) are serving a viable option in meeting the set targets. Especially for light- and heavy-duty applications with long and alternating ranges, FCEV offer technical advantages against other local-emission-free vehicles. For achieving the anticipated market share of up to 32% by 2030, the costs of heavy-duty FCEV have to be reduced significantly. The main cost driver is the hydrogen storage system, which nowadays is mostly based upon Type IV pressure tanks. Additionally, depending on the system boundaries and the chosen storage type, the hydrogen storage system can be responsible for the biggest amount of production-related emissions of all drivetrain components. As a result, the overall cost and sustainability of the final FCEV application is driven by the hydrogen storage system and the respective product and production developments. In order to understand the cost and emission distribution within the respective production processes, a holistic economic and ecological analysis of automotive hydrogen storage systems is conducted within this paper based on an internal tool. The focus lies on hydrogen storage systems that are technologically mature enough to be installed in light- and heavy-duty applications. From both the economic as well as the ecological analysis it gets clear that the liquid hydrogen storage is the most advantageous with the current state of the art. The reduction of the carbon footprint of carbon fibre would improve the other technologies significantly.