Integrated transport and energy systems based on hydrogen and fuel cell electric vehicles

Abstract

This thesis presents the design and analysis of future 100% renewable integrated transport and energy systems based on electricity and hydrogen as energy carriers. In which Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) are used for transport, distributing energy and balancing electricity demand. Passenger cars in Europe are parked on average 97% of the time. They are used for driving only 3% of the time (l300 hours per year). So passenger car FCEVs can be used for energy balancing and electricity generation when parked and connected to the electricity grid, in the socalled Vehicle-to-Grid (V2G) mode. In Europe around 15.3 million passenger vehicles were sold in 2019 [1]. Using the “Our Car as Power Plant” analogy of Van Wijk et al. [2], multiplying each vehicle by 100 kW of future installed electric power in it, this would equal to 1,530 GW of annual sold power capacity in passenger vehicles. This is more than the existing 950 GW installed power generation capacity in Europe in 2019 [3]. The theoretical potential to use passenger FCEVs for power production, with the present low usage for driving, seems to be large. Commercially available FCEVs use proton exchange membrane fuel cells systems to generate electricity from oxygen from the air and the hydrogen stored in on-board tanks at 700 bar. In parallel to the fuel cell, a small high voltage (HV) battery pack is connected. The HV battery is used for regenerative braking and provides additional power for acceleration. This combination of fuel cell and HV battery can deliver almost every kind of electrical energy service, from balancing intermittent renewables to emergency power back-up. By using both the HV battery and fuel cell of a few up to tens of thousands of aggregated FCEVs in combination with large-scale hydrogen storage, kW to GW-scale power generation and energy storage from seconds to seasons can be achieved.