Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles Research Articles

The race of ecological vehicles: consumer behavior and generation impact in the Portuguese market

The impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly severe and noticeable. Consumers are becoming more cognizant of the environmental challenges that affect the planet. A major contributor to carbon emissions and the resulting warming climate and pollution is transportation. As a result, the selection of environmentally friendly options in this industry is becoming a pressing matter. This study aims to examine the reasons that motivate consumers to choose eco-friendly vehicles. The study specifically aims to understand what factors drive consumers to purchase such vehicles. A questionnaire was administered to the Portuguese population to determine which factors influence the decision to purchase eco-friendly vehicles, and what type of vehicles are preferred. The study includes all types of eco-friendly vehicles, including early-stage solutions such as fuel cell vehicles. Furthermore, the study examines whether there is any difference in purchasing habits between generations. The study is based on several theories, including the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Diffusion of Innovation (DOI), Norm Activation Model (NAM), and Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB). Our research concludes that attitude (influenced by the advantages, compatibility, and non-complexity) and personal norms (influenced by the efficiency) are the two factors that affect positively and significantly the intention of purchase. The preferred eco-friendly vehicle among participants was found to be the hybrid electric vehicle, and the hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle was also considered. The study did not find a significant impact of generation on purchasing decisions, but different generations were found to value different factors when making a vehicle purchase.

Driving discussion: Media framing of electric, hydrogen, and conventional vehicles in German newspapers and Twitter

Decarbonizing the transportation sector will require a faster transformation towards alternative fuel vehicles, such as battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). Media framing can influence public perceptions and attitudes towards emerging technologies, making it a critical factor in accelerating transportation transitions. Yet despite its importance, media framing around alternative fuel vehicles remains largely unexplored. In this paper, we map the discourse around BEVs, FCEVs, and internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) in Germany, using topic modeling (Latent Dirichlet Allocation) to analyze over 13,000 articles and 280,000 Tweets. We find that newspaper and Twitter discourse largely emphasize different frames: newspapers focus on the industry and governance context around BEVs, FCEVs and ICEVs, while consumer-oriented issues are more common on Twitter. Industry and governance are common frames for all vehicle types but outweighed by distinct frames for each technology. The frames show that BEVs are now widely seen as a viable replacement for ICEVs in newspapers but remain contested on Twitter.

Grand canonical Monte Carlo simulations of the hydrogen and methane storage capacities of novel but MOFs at room temperature

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (HFCEVs) and Natural Gas Vehicles (NGVs) are cleaner alternatives to present oil-based vehicles. The main problem of these technologies is the on-board storage. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) is one of the main groups of solid porous materials that can be used to store hydrogen or methane on-board these vehicles at room temperature and low or moderate pressures. The synthesis of these materials is usually expensive. Recently a group of eleven new BUT MOFs (BUT: Beijing University of Technology) has been synthesized using cheap organic precursors. Grand Canonical Monte Carlo simulations (GCMC) of the hydrogen and methane storage capacities and isosteric heats of these BUTs have been carried out and analyzed at 298.15 K and at pressures in the range 0.5–50 MPa. The correlations between the storage capacities and the porosity, the density, the pore size and the isosteric heat of the MOFs are analyzed. According to the simulations, three of the newly developed BUTs demonstrated high storage capacities for both hydrogen and methane. BUT-104 and 105 exhibited useable hydrogen volumetric and gravimetric capacities of approximately 0.023–0.027 kg/L and 4 wt % at 50 MPa. Additionally, they showcased useable methane volumetric and gravimetric capacities of 0.16–0.21 kg/L and 25 wt % at 25–35 MPa. Moreover, BUT-107 achieved the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) hydrogen target for 2025, with a useable hydrogen gravimetric capacity of 5.5 wt % at 27 MPa. Furthermore, BUT-107 met the corresponding DOE methane targets, with useable methane volumetric and gravimetric capacities of 0.25 kg/L and 33.33 wt % at 50 MPa.

Optimization and analysis of a hydrogen supply chain in terms of cost, CO2 emissions, and risk: the case of Turkey

The transportation sector, which is largely dependent on oil, is faced with many problems such as the danger of depletion of fossil fuels that are harmful to the environment. Moreover, the situations such as epidemics and war cause excessive fluctuations in oil prices. Therefore, there is a need for new solutions based on alternative energy sources for a sustainable transportation sector. Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (HFCEV) are one of the significant alternatives for an efficient, zero emissions and sustainable transportation system. Considering the potential investment in HFCEV technology, the need for a cost effective, green, and low risk Hydrogen Supply Chain (HSC) network infrastructure is inevitable. In this study, the HSC design of the Turkish transportation sector over a 25-year period (2026–2050) is investigated. The problem is modeled using a multi-period mixed integer linear programming (MIP) model. Three objectives are addresses: cost, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and safety risk. In order to consider the uncertainty in the hydrogen demand, five different scenarios are analyzed using fuzzy concept. There are four main results. First, unit hydrogen cost is found to be very high due to low demand and high capital cost in the initial period (2026–2031). Second, HSC network is established in a decentralized setting in all scenario solutions. The level of decentralization gets stronger over time and with increasing demand. Third, short-distance road transport is generally preferred for hydrogen transport. Fourth, since the aim is to minimize cost, CO2 emissions, and risk level, a mixed production strategy based on cost-oriented SMR and zero-emissions-oriented Electrolysis (ELE) is observed in all scenarios.

Coordinated Planning of Electricity and Hydrogen Networks with Hydrogen Supply Chain for Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles

Hydrogen production has become an emerging technology and offered a pathway to sustainable energy utilization in transportation systems. In this paper, we propose a coordinated planning of the electricity network and hydrogen refueling and production station planning strategy for hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). In the proposed system structure, a hydrogen supply chain for FCEVs mainly composes hydrogen refueling stations (HRSs), hydrogen production stations (HPSs), hydrogen storage, and hydrogen delivery network. To enhance the system's flexibility, hydrogen delivery combines both gas pipeline delivery and truck logistics delivery. In the mathematical models, the synergistic effect and coupling relationship of the electricity network, gas network, and transportation network are presented. To ensure the efficiency and effectiveness of the hydrogen refueling system, a quality of service (QoS) and reliability assessment method is presented. The proposed methodology is verified in case studies. It is found out that compared with the single delivery methods, the proposed multi-network coordinated planning has the lowest total cost with less unserved energy. Besides, through QoS and reliability assessment, enough hydrogen reserves can be maintained to cope with contingencies.

A Comparison of Battery and Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles for Clean Transportation

Burning fossil fuels for transportation is a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to global warming, air pollution, and health problems. Research estimates that cars alone emit more than 300 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year due to the internal combustion engines that use fossil fuels. In contrast to fossil fuel vehicles, electric vehicles have zero tailpipe emissions. Therefore, countries around the world are making efforts to use electric vehicles instead of fossil fuels. Two of the available alternatives to internal-combustion engines are battery and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles. This work investigates the basic functionalities and current advancements of battery and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles. A comprehensive comparison of the benefits and drawbacks of each technology is provided, along with future forecasts for transportation.

Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning in Energy Management Systems, Control, and Optimization of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles

Environmental emissions, global warming, and energy-related concerns have accelerated the advancements in conventional vehicles that primarily use internal combustion engines. Among the existing technologies, hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles and fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles may have minimal contributions to greenhouse gas emissions and thus are the prime choices for environmental concerns. However, energy management in fuel cell electric vehicles and fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles is a major challenge. Appropriate control strategies should be used for effective energy management in these vehicles. On the other hand, there has been significant progress in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and designing data-driven intelligent controllers. These techniques have found much attention within the community, and state-of-the-art energy management technologies have been developed based on them. This manuscript reviews the application of machine learning and intelligent controllers for prediction, control, energy management, and vehicle to everything (V2X) in hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. The effectiveness of data-driven control and optimization systems are investigated to evolve, classify, and compare, and future trends and directions for sustainability are discussed.

Operatable and Efficient Mitigation Strategies for H2S Poisoning in Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells: Releasing Pt Reactive Sites for Hydrogen Oxidation

The anode feed for hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) currently still relies on the reformed fuel that inevitably contains contaminants (e.g., CO, H2S, and NH3). As one of the most sensitive impurities, trace H2S in hydrogen significantly deteriorates the durability of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), while there is still a lack of effective strategies to mitigate H2S poisoning in PEMFCs. Herein, we present two kinds of facile, operatable, and efficient strategies to mitigate a H2S-poisoned anode, with the aim of improving the durability of PEMFCs by releasing more Pt reactive sites for hydrogen oxidation reaction (HOR) catalysis. The first mitigation strategy is conducted by increasing the cell temperature temporarily when purging with pure hydrogen after H2S poisoning by means of accelerating H2S desorption on Pt sites under high temperatures and thus releasing more available Pt reactive sites for HOR catalysis. A higher temporary temperature leads to a larger recovery percentage of performance, outperforming the effect of the generally adopted pure hydrogen purging operation. Another mitigation strategy is called “internal oxygen permeation”, based on the oxidation of sulfur-adsorbed anode by compelling air diffusion through thin PEM via constructing a pressure differential between the cathode and the anode. The cell was found to be recovered more at a high pressure differential due to the fact that more sulfur species are oxidized by a larger content of permeated oxygen, showing ∼88.7% performance recovery for 0.40 bar pressure differential. The proposed strategies with simplicity, operability, and resilience show promising potential in the application of long-term PEMFCs, which is critical for the durability improvement of FCEVs and cost reduction of hydrogen purification.

On the benefit of integrating vortex tubes in PEMFC system for preheating hydrogen in FCEV technologies

Using hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles equipped with proton exchange membrane fuel cells could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the transportation sector. Heating is necessary for a safe cold start-up process, but current methods consume a lot of electrical energy. In this research, it is proposed to heat the hydrogen by using vortex tubes to separate the compressed hydrogen into a low and a high enthalpy streams and by using a heat exchanger to pump heat from the ambient into the cold stream. This system uses only the excess pressure available from the hydrogen tank as the motive power. A real gas thermodynamic model coupled with a genetic algorithm is used to maximize the hydrogen inlet temperature to the fuel cell for three different configurations of vortex tubes and heat exchangers for a 4-passenger 100 kW fuel cell electric vehicle while minimizing the heat exchanger conductance and area product. For hydrogen stored at −30 °C, vortex tubes can increase the hydrogen feeding temperature from −1.6 °C (Joule-Thompson heating in an isenthalpic throttling valve) to up to 18.3 °C, which corresponds to a heating power of 622 W.

Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Charging Price Determination Considering the Coordinated Operation of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle, Power Network and Transportation Network

Deep Reinforcement Learning-Based Charging Price Determination Considering the Coordinated Operation of Hydrogen Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle, Power Network and Transportation Network

Study on the Explosion of the Hydrogen Fuel Tank of Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles in Semi-Enclosed Spaces

The rise in hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) is expected to pose a variety of hazards on the road. Vehicles using hydrogen could cause significant damage, owing to hydrogen vapor cloud explosions, jet fires caused by leakage, or hydrogen tank explosions. This risk is expected to further increase in semi-enclosed spaces, such as underground parking lots and road tunnels. Therefore, it is necessary to study the fire safety of hydrogen vehicles in semi-enclosed spaces. In this study, an experiment on hydrogen tank explosion was performed. In addition, the CFD numerical model was verified using the experimental results, and the damaging effect due to pressure propagation during hydrogen tank explosions in underground parking lots and road tunnels was analyzed using numerical analysis. From the experiment results, the hydrogen tank exploded at about 80 Mpa, a maximum incident pressure is generated 267 kPa at a distance of 1.9 m. As a result of numerical analysis based on the experimental results, the limit distance that can cause serious injury due to the explosion of a hydrogen tank in a road tunnel or underground parking lot was analyzed up to about 20 m from the point of explosion.

Multi-Objective Operation Strategy for a Community with RESs, Fuel Cell EVs and Hydrogen Energy System Considering Demand Response

Nowadays, it can be said that loads in the residential and transportation sector constitute an important part of global energy consumption. In this respect, due to environmental problems and in terms of ensuring energy reliability, it is seen that the energy demand is moving towards supplying it from on-site, renewable energy sources (RESs) and in a small-scale region, namely community. In this context, in this study, a multi-objective stochastic optimum energy management model for a renewable-supported hydrogen-based community is proposed with mixed-integer linear programming method. In the structure, the hydrogen energy system (HES) consisting of an electrolyzer, hydrogen tank, and fuel cell provides energy to the community and fuel support for hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (HFCEVs). In addition, a demand response (DR) program is implemented, where the room temperatures of the houses are remotely controlled. While electricity can be purchased from the power grid, hydrogen can be traded with the main hydrogen gas network. Besides, renewable spillage and carbon emission costs are considered. Various case studies are conducted using real data from Spain to demonstrate the effectiveness of the presented model. According to the results obtained, the proposed method can reduce the cost of the community by 58.67%.

Full-scale fire testing of battery electric vehicles

The market share of electric vehicles, powered by lithium-ion batteries (LIB), has been expanding worldwide with the global momentum towards green technology and improving the driving range on one full-charge. Studies are, however, still required on the fire safety of the latest but unmatured technology due to a distinctive phenomenon called thermal runaway. In this study, a series of full-scale fire experiments were conducted, focusing on the understanding of thermal behaviours of battery electric vehicle (BEV) fires. To provide up-to-date information on BEV fires, the latest BEV model with a high electric-energy capacity (64 kWh) was selected. For comparative analysis purposes, a LIB pack and a BEV body were tested individually after being physically disassembled. An internal combustion engine vehicle and a hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle were also tested. During testing, the combustion of the BEV fires continued for approximately 70 min, resulting in critical measures of burning being determined; peak heat release rate (pHRR), total heat released (THR), fire growth parameter, and the average effective heat of combustion were measured to be 6.51–7.25 MW, 8.45–9.03 GJ, 0.0085–0.020, and 29.8–30.5 MJ/kg, respectively. It was also observed that the pHRR and THR were governed by the combustion characteristics of typical combustible materials in the passenger cabin, rather than by that of particular contents in the LIB pack with thermal runaway. Instead, a jet fire intensively discharging from the LIB pack led to a rapid flame spreading to adjacent combustible components of the BEV, thereby accelerating the fire growth. The findings could contribute to the activities of the first responders to BEV fire accidents, fire safety engineers, and structural member designers. This study also makes public the measured thermal quantities for further studies on the fire safety of existing or designing car-parking related structures.

Investigation of a Calibration Method of Coriolis Mass Flowmeters by Density- and Pressure-Matching Approaches for Hydrogen Refueling Stations

Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles are emerging as a means of transportation using renewable and carbon-free energy due to global warming and air pollution. Hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles are typically refueled at a wide range of temperatures (−40 °C to 85 °C) in hydrogen refueling stations in accordance with globally accepted standards. Currently, there is no traceable method by which to verify and calibrate the Coriolis mass flowmeters used at hydrogen refueling stations, except for a water calibration process as a conventional method for mass flowrate calibration. To verify the hydrogen flow metering to a suitable level of accuracy under the challenging condition of high pressures and a wide range of temperatures, necessary methodologies and calibration facilities are developed in the present study. A flow measurement characteristic test of the hydrogen mass flowmeter under identical density conditions of the refueled hydrogen was conducted using the high-pressure gas flow standard system of the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science to assess the effects on the medium and pressure of the mass flowmeter in a density-matching approach. To investigate the pressure dependence of the mass flowmeter at a hydrogen refueling station, a high-pressure water flow test was conducted in the pressure range of 2 bar to 700 bar, which is a pressure-matching approach. Finally, the KRISS Hydrogen Field Test Standard based on the gravimetric principle was developed to verify the measurement accuracy of the mass flowmeter to be used at hydrogen refueling stations for the first time in Korea.

The hidden cost of road maintenance due to the increased weight of battery and hydrogen trucks and buses—a perspective

Decarbonisation of transport emissions is essential to meet climate targets. For road transport, currently available technologies are battery electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles. Battery vehicles are more established than hydrogen; both could deliver the emissions reduction required. However, battery vehicles are considerably heavier than equivalent hydrogen vehicles, which are in turn slightly heavier than internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles; a heavier vehicle will have a bigger impact on road wear and associated costs. Here we carry out a desk-based analysis, developed in 2021–2022, examining the impact and cost of the increased weight of zero emissions vehicles on road wear in an entire national vehicle fleet. The novelty is in the first quantified application of the long-understood relationship between axle load and road wear to the problem of the additional weight of zero emissions vehicles. This leads to an approximate quantification of additional costs of road maintenance as the vehicle fleet transitions to zero emissions vehicles. We examine these in four scenarios: all battery vehicles; all hydrogen vehicles; a combination; current ICE vehicles for comparison. We find 20–40% additional road wear associated with battery vehicles compared to ICE vehicles; hydrogen leads to a 6% increase. This is overwhelmingly caused by large vehicles – buses, heavy goods vehicles. Smaller vehicles make a negligible contribution. Governmental bodies liable for road maintenance may wish to set weight limits on roads, require additional axles on heavier vehicles, or construct new roads to a higher standard, to decrease road wear.Graphical abstractBEV large vehicles create a significantly greater increase in road wear than HFCEV, both compared to ICE

Analysis of the Future of Mobility: The Battery Electric Vehicle Seems Just a Transitory Alternative

It is, undoubtedly, a widespread belief that the electric vehicle (EV) is considered sustainable. However, in the manufacturing and retirement phases, EVs do not appear to be as sustainable as internal combustion vehicles (ICVs) and during the use phase, the pollution produced by EVs depends on the source of electricity generation to recharge the batteries. From an economic point of view, EVs do not appear to be competitive compared to ICVs either. However, current market trends push hard on battery EVs (BEV) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEV). This study aims to analyze which of the possible mobility alternatives has more sense to be considered as the option with higher penetration in the future. To this end, four known mobility technologies (ICVs, PHEVs, BEVs, and hydrogen fuel cell EVs or FCEVs) are compared for a mid-size car using published data, through environmental and techno-economic criteria, by applying the analytic hierarchy process method in an objective manner on multiple scenarios. Putting all criteria together, it seems that the ICV alternative is the one receiving the best results in most of the scenarios, except in the case where the environmental criteria have the greatest weight. The BEV solution has almost always turned out to be the worst alternative, but it is the only choice we have right now.

A comparative total cost of ownership analysis of heavy duty on-road and off-road vehicles powered by hydrogen, electricity, and diesel

This study investigated the cost competitiveness, using total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis, of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) in heavy duty on and off-road fleet applications as a key enabler in the decarbonisation of the transport sector and compares results to battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and diesel internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs). Assessments were carried out for a present day (2021) scenario, and a sensitivity analysis assesses the impact of changing input parameters on FCEV TCO. This identified conditions under which FCEVs become competitive. A future outlook is also carried out examining the impact of time-sensitive parameters on TCO, when net zero targets are to be reached in the UK and EU. Several FCEVs are cost competitive with ICEVs in 2021, but not BEVs, under base case conditions. However, FCEVs do have potential to become competitive with BEVs under specific conditions favouring hydrogen, including the application of purchase grants and a reduced hydrogen price. By 2050, a number of FCEVs running on several hydrogen scenarios show a TCO lower than ICEVs and BEVs using rapid chargers, but for the majority of vehicles considered, BEVs remain the lowest in cost, unless specific FCEV incentives are implemented. This paper has identified key factors hindering the deployment of hydrogen and conducted comprehensive TCO analysis in heavy duty on and off-road fleet applications. The output has direct contribution to the decarbonisation of the transport sector.

A review on best practices using hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles in public transport

Road transportation sector is responsible for 21.8% of EU’s CO2eq emissions forcing the shift to a de-carbonised mobility scheme, whilst maintaining competitiveness and satisfying the increasing demand mobility needs. Thus, the development of electric vehicles (EVs) and the investigation of alternative fuels by the research community have emerged. Hydrogen is considered a good substitute fuel for the road transport sector if it is produced from renewable energy sources. Several cities have already started to replace a percentage of their conventional public transport fleet with fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEV). This paper provides a detailed presentation of several best practices applied in small-medium scale European cities and regions. Best practices are investigated from a city-centred point of view to provide a clearer understanding of the hydrogen initiatives performed in the specific areas. The selected scenarios have demonstrated and implemented different state-of-the-art hydrogen applications in the hydrogen mobility supply chain, which could be potentially tested in other regions with similar geographical, economical and transport activities. Finally, the outcomes of this review study identify different challenges, barriers and opportunities of hydrogen mobility applications which other cities should take into consideration before investing in this technology.

Thermal Effect and Heat Control Strategy of Magnesium-Based Hydrogen Storage Alloy System for Lightweight Automobile

The magnesium-based hydrogen storage alloy has a very good prospect to be applied in the market of lightweight automobile due to its merits of light weight, excellent discharge performance, long cycle life, and large hydrogen storage capacity. However, existing studies on magnesium-based hydrogen storage alloy have a series of shortcomings such as the insufficient works in terms of model reasonability analysis, heat transfer behavior analysis, heat control scheme design, and comparative experiment analysis, etc. In view of these problems, this paper studied the thermal effect and heat control strategy of the Mg-based Hydrogen Storage Alloy (MHSA) system for lightweight automobile. At first, this paper constructed numerical models for the fluid-solid coupled heat exchange region and the heat conduction region in the system; then, based on the law of energy conservation, a heat transfer behavior model of the MHSA system was established and used to analyze the thermal effect of the system. After that, according to the driving process of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicle, the working process of the MHSA system was further analyzed to study the heat control process. Next, this paper proposed a new idea for the heat control of the MHSA system, gave a few tips for the simulations, and presented the flow of the heat control scheme of the system. At last, the experimental results were given and analyzed.

Battery and hydrogen-based electric vehicle adoption: A survey of Australian consumers perspective

Electric vehicles (EV) are a promising alternative for the current fossil-fuel-based vehicles. However, as of 2020, the share of EV sales was only 4.6 % globally, and 1 % in Australia. It is important to identify factors that promote or hinder consumer intentions of EV adoption. In addition, there are a few types of EVs, each with different advantages and disadvantages creating consumer segmentation. This study considered battery-powered EV and hydrogen fuel cell EV and sought to understand which factors influence the preferences for one of the two types of vehicles. We designed a survey on individual perceptions toward EV and collected data of 1735 consumers in Australia. Participants had a mean age of 44.9 years (SD = 16.71) and 41 % of them were males. The median daily traveling distances was 8.7 km, and 74 % of them reported using a personal car for commuting. The results show that the safety concern has a stronger impact on adoption intention than the purchase cost and perceived benefits. Age and consumers' current mode of transportation play a significant role in EV adoption intentions. In addition, the results indicate that preference for BEV is significantly affected by BEV range sufficiency, tolerability in battery charging time, and fear of hydrogen explosion, whereas the key preference factors for FCEVs is their longer driving range, and fear of battery explosion. Besides, the results reveal that part-time employees are more likely to prefer BEV than full-time workers. On the other hand, apartment residents tend to prefer FCEV more than people living in a house. Furthermore, female is more likely to still undecided than males whether they prefer BEV or FCEV.