Fuel cell vehicles refuelling

An onboard hydrogen tank has several problems since hydrogen leaks easily, is hard to store and hard to compress and burns quickly. Overcoming all these concerns has been expensive but most of the major auto companies has solved these problems for the most part in their prototype fuel cell vehicles. Refueling tends to be difficult although there are now a number of hydrogen refueling stations in use around the world. 

Estimate the cost reductions from scaling the least expensive technology to a larger unit providing 160 fuel cell vehicle refuelings per day. 

In 2004 a retail hydrogen fueling station opened in Washington D.C. in a partnership between Shell and GM to develop hydrogen-fueled vehicles on a commercial scale. The station will service GM fuel cell vehicles. Both compressed and liquid hydrogen refueling are available. 

For the FCV to be successful in the marketplace, it must satisfy customer desires and regulatory requirements (see Table 3-1). Fuel cell vehicles will easily meet a few of these desires and requirements. They will excel in fuel economy and emissions reduction. On the negative side, for the foreseeable future they will likely be expensive, have less range, and be more difficult to refuel. Their ability to satisfy other demands and requirements is more ambiguous, depending on perceptions, design decisions, and near-term engineering improvements. 

Assembled products Fuel cell vehicles Hydrogen storage systems Refueling devices Hydrogen detection systems Hybrid-electric vehicles Natural gas vehicles ... 

In the case of hydrogen, illustrated in Fig. 7-2, the radical innovations include fuel cells, refueling systems, hydrogen detection devices, and so forth. All of these component innovations must be integrated into the fuel cell vehicle design, and a significant underperformance in any one component—onboard storage, for example—could render the entire vehicle system uncompetitive in the marketplace. Much entrepreneurial activity has already occurred here, but its future rate and direction remain unclear. 

If one element of the hydrogen system is not able to meet customer requirements, it is unlikely that the system as a whole will be able to function. For example, having the infrastructure to enable every driver to refuel their hydrogen fuel cell vehicle near their home or place of business is crucial to the success of the hydrogen transition. There is a need to coordinate elements of the hydrogen value chain, so one component does not delay progress on another. 

Beyond the challenges presented by the development of a reliable, affordable fuel cell, the challenges associated with a refueling infrastructure are equally daunting. While there is a consensus that early fuel cell vehicle deployment will rely on onboard storage of compressed hydrogen, stored at... 

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