A planning model to assess hydrogen as an alternative fuel for national light-duty vehicle portfolio

This paper assesses using hydrogen as alternative fuel in U.S LDV (light-duty vehicle) transportation system. Firstly, the paper develops the hydrogen network model consisting of multiple production pathways that eventually lead to the FCVs (fuel-cell vehicles) for passenger transportation; such that the interdependency of hydrogen network with energy system and the competition of FCVs with other LDV modes (plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and gasoline vehicles) are captured. Then, the evaluation of economics and environmental impact of large-scale hydrogen deployment in national LDV market is analyzed by simulating long-term energy and transportation infrastructure planning studies, and the factors that influence the penetration of FCVs are assessed from the national economics and sustainability standpoint. It is seen from the results that economics and sustainability of PHEV (pluggable electric hybrid vehicle) penetration is very much dependent on the availability of low cost renewables, and given a practical limit on renewable generation expansion and tighter imposition of carbon policies, FCVs do prove to be highly valuable in rendering the national LDV portfolio sustainable and resilient against petroleum related events. With improvements in FCV investment cost of about 11-19%, they can outperform PHEVs and gasoline vehicles as the economic and sustainable LDV option under high renewable power generation portfolio.