A comparison of hydrogen, methanal and gasoline as fuels for fuel cell vehicles: implications for vehicle design and infrastructure development

All fuel cells currently being developed for near term use in electric vehi cles require hydrogen as a fuel. Hydrogen can be stored directly or produce d onboard the vehicle by reforming methanol, or hydrocarbon fuels derived f rom crude oil (e.g., gasoline, diesel, or middle distillates). The vehicle design is simpler with direct hydrogen storage, but requires developing a m ore complex refueling infrastructure. In this paper, we present modeling re sults comparing three leading options for fuel storage onboard fuel cell ve hicles: (a) compressed gas hydrogen storage, (b) onboard steam reforming of methanol, (c) onboard partial oxidation (POX) of hydrocarbon fuels derived from crude oil. We have developed a fuel cell vehicle model, including det ailed models of onboard fuel processors. This allows us to compare the vehi cle performance, fuel economy, weight, and cost for various vehicle paramet ers, fuel storage choices and driving cycles. The infrastructure requiremen ts are also compared for gaseous hydrogen, methanol and gasoline, including the added costs of fuel production, storage, distribution and refueling st ations. The delivered fuel cost, total lifecycle cost of transportation, an d capital cost of infrastructure development are estimated for each alterna tive. Considering both vehicle and infrastructure issues, possible fuel str ategies leading to the commercialization of fuel cell vehicles are discusse d. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.