A hydrogen refuelling stations infrastructure deployment for cities supported on fuel cell taxi roll-out

Abstract

A shift towards lower-carbon fuels is mandatory to achieve the decarbonisation of the transport sector, which is responsible of 14% of world greenhouse gas emissions. Despite to the fact that fuel cell electric vehicles are zero tail-pipe emissions vehicles, their use is presently residual. A massive integration of fuel cell vehicles faces a “chicken-egg dilemma”: vehicles need a proper refuelling infrastructure to provide a safe and continuous hydrogen supply, but a viable deployment of the refuelling infrastructure needs the support of an initial market of vehicles.In this article, we design a feasible strategy for overcoming the dilemma, using the local taxi fleet as a stable market of hydrogen consumers to start up a retail hydrogen supply infrastructure in high-populated cities. The design is based on three objectives: ensuring hydrogen supply, having throughout the city a nearby alternative for refuelling and maximizing the infrastructure utilisation rate.The strategy applied to the city of Madrid show that $415 million of public funds allocated along 25 years would provide in six years a network of 112 hydrogen refuelling stations, able to supply the hydrogen needs of 15,000 new fuel cell electric taxis what would cut the emissions of 300 kt CO2 yearly.