EIA 4

The following are my notes from the EIA 4th report

2030 is a potentially realistic projection for cost effective light duty FCV’s, however the next twenty five or so years requires extensive investment measures.

Long-term state and federal policies are required

High capital costs of PEM fuel cell is one challenge

Other challenges include: developing on board hydrogen storage systems, integrating the PEM fuel cell into an LDV motor and building an effective and economical dispensing network

There is a divide in market investing and federal funds in general as some funding is going towards hydrogen fuel cell technologies while others are preoccupied with developing and improving standard technologies in order to comply with the 2020 CAFÉ standards of 35 miles per gallon

Successful R&D and commercialization of an advanced battery technology that achieves acceptable safety, performance, durability, and costs could support all three advanced automotive technologies—for all-electric PHEVs, all-electric FCVs, and hybrid FCVs.

According to EERE,⁸⁰ the following hydrogen-related goals must be achieved if FCVs are to attain large-scale dominance in the LDV market:

• The delivered, untaxed, cost of hydrogen, including production, transportation, and distribution, must decline to between $2 and $3 per gallon gasoline equivalent, or approximately $2 to $3 per kilogram of hydrogen, because 1 kilogram of hydrogen contains about the same energy as a gallon of gasoline, and $1 per kilogram is about $8.77 per million Btu,⁸¹ if crude oil prices are sustained at about $90 per barrel in real 2006 dollars. Higher crude oil prices would allow higher-cost hydrogen to pass the economic test.

• Federal and State policies must be instituted to facilitate the construction of all phases of a hydrogen production, transmission, distribution, and dispensing infrastructure. The policies may have to include financial incentives and guarantees that currently are unspecified, as well as safety regulations for the transportation of hydrogen through tunnels and on bridges.

• Fuel cell and vehicle manufacturers must be convinced that the Federal and State governments will provide a stable and supportive set of policies that encourage their investments in hydrogen FCVs for at least 10 years, according to an ORNL report.⁸²

• Hydrogen storage costs for fuel cells must fall to about $2 per kilowatt from their currently estimated price of about $8 per kilowatt for the 5,000 psi system.⁸³

• The total cost of all the fuel cell components, including fuel stacks, catalyst, and balance of system, must fall to $30 per kilowatt,⁸⁴ as compared with current cost estimates of $3,625 to $4,500 per kilowatt for production in small numbers.

• Ideally, the first FCV markets must be developed in areas with high population densities that already have excess capacity at hydrogen production facilities, in order to encourage early adoption, provide consumer familiarity, and accelerate fuel cell cost reductions based on learning by the automobile manufactures.

Each of these major goals and associated challenges are discussed below. Additional technical and economic feasibility items may also require resolutio

Hydrogen Production, Hyrdrogen Sytorage, Hydrogen Infastrucure

Development and Deployment of a HYRDO infrastructure requires both long term developments of building an extensive distribution network via pipelines similar ot the natural gas pipelines already in existence, and developing local centralized facilites that use natural gas as feedstock

Neither will be accomplished based on investor interest alone and require extensive federal incentives

Furthermore the costs of the various storage and transmission can vary greatly and therefore as the hydrogen economy develops these challenges of distribution will come down to cost effectiveness, practicality, and safety

Currently it has been beneficial to target highly populated areas, expand on existing infrastructures and facilities near by for hydrogen production and consequently provide the area with the alternative

As mentioned before, LDV costs need to drop significantly before any large-scale market penetration

This will require PEM fuel cell costs to reduce to at least 30$ per kilowatt