Social cost comparison among fuel cell vehicle alternatives

Abstract

A comparison of the social cost among emerging vehicle technologies can be performed using different approaches and variables. The objective of this paper is to compare the social cost of different fuels being considered for use in fuel cell vehicles. To address the necessary input values, a debited analysis of different technological aspects was carried out. These aspects are related to: the complexity of each technology (vehicle cost, maintenance requirement and life expectancy); vehicle performance (fuel economy and relative market share); fuel infrastructure (fuel cost); full-cycle emissions (fuel upstream emissions and vehicle operation emissions); and overall health cost to society. This study compares the use of methanol and hydrogen fuels in fuel cell vehicles with the use of reformulated gasoline in advanced internal combustion engines, hybrid and fuel cell vehicles. The input assumptions used are based on the current literature. The result shows that both alternative fuel technologies are very close in their benefits, and both are superior to gasoline. Methanol was found to have the greatest benefit in reducing cost associated with damage to human health from air pollution.