Figure 1. Fuel cell vehicle with on-board storage [29].

 

The development of one important aspect of the fuel cell vehicle—the electric motor—dates back to the early 19th century. Although electric vehicles were a strong contender in the early 20th century to become a mainstream transportation method, the ICE vehicle eventually won out due to the short range and the high cost of electric vehicles. Additionally, the discovery of Texan oil reduced the price of gasoline, thus it became affordable to the average consumer, which caused fuel cell and electric vehicles to take a backseat to the ICE vehicle for most of the last 100 years [47]. The oil embargo in 1973 kick-started a renewed interest in FC power for personal transportation applications, as governments looked to mitigate their dependence on petroleum imports. In the early 1970s, K. Kordesch [52] modified a sedan to operate from a 6-kW FC and a lead acid battery pack. The automobile was driven on public roads for about three years. In 1993, Ballard launched a fuel cell-powered light-duty transit bus using a 120-kW FC system, followed by a heavy-duty transit bus using a 200-kW FC system in 1995. In 1994 and 1995, H-Power built three fuel cell-battery hybrid buses, each using a 50-kW FC and a 100-kW nickel-cadmium battery [53]. The importance of these releases was to make FC technology understandable to key decision makers in industry and government. These buses helped to prove that fuel cells would work in the real world. Fleet-vehicle operations, such as buses and delivery services, were early adopters of fuel cell technology due to the ease of centralized refueling and the reduced requirement for a high range capability between fill-ups. Trials of FC powered buses have occurred in Vancouver and Chicago, as well as in other cities in Europe and North America [54]. In July 2005, the first FC vehicle was leased to a family in California as an important step in getting more fuel cell vehicles on the road. However, many obstacles remain to be overcome before the FC vehicle can become a mainstream form of transportation. An obvious issue is the need for a hydrogen infrastructure to enable refueling of the vehicles. Hydrogen filling stations currently exist in many countries around the world, such as Canada, the USA, Iceland, Japan, Singapore, and Germany. Though these stations are currently not widespread enough to allow large numbers of people to begin driving FCVs, it is expected that more hydrogen infrastructure will be built as more FCVs become commercially available. Hydrogen FCVs have evolved significantly; currently, they can drive between 311 to 597 miles on a full tank. The development of these vehicles is increasing, but they still require significant improvements [14].

It should be noted that FCEVs are more promising in city bus applications due to two reasons—the supply of hydrogen is not crucial, because the buses refuel in one place, hence only one refilling point is required, and the price of FCs. FCs are still expensive, therefore it makes more sense to buy them for vehicles that are in use for many hours each day [55]. As of June 2018, there have been more than 6500 FCVs delivered to consumers. California was the leading market for FCVs, with nearly 3000 vehicles being delivered due to it having the largest network of hydrogen refueling stations (HRS) [56]. In Europe, Germany’s Linde AG and France’s Air Liquide have been working together to increase Germany’s stations from 15 to 100 by 2017 and to 400 by 2023. About 1000 HRS would be required to provide full coverage in countries such as Germany or France, with a cost of 1.5 to 2 billion euro [57,58].

FCV sales volumes are projected to be significant, but only in the long term, even with a favorable climate-policy scenario. Figure 4 shows FCV sales volume anticipations based on a long-term powertrain mix scenario (million annual units) [59]. Considering a similar scenario, the international energy agency (IEA) anticipates an FCV market share of about 17% by 2050 (35 million annual unit sales) [60].

 

Figure 2. Fuel cell vehicle (FCV) sales volume. Source: IEA. All rights reserved. [59].

 

Another option to increase the HRS prevalence is to use electrolysis at refueling stations to convert electricity from the grid into hydrogen. This idea could be extended to residential applications, where people would have a hydrogen refueling station in their own homes [61,62,63]. The obstacles associated with developing an adequate hydrogen infrastructure brings up another important question—where will the hydrogen come from? Although hydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe, it rarely exists alone in nature. Today, hydrogen is mostly produced by reforming natural gas. In this way, pollutants can be captured if the reforming is done at a central plant. However, other options, such as direct solar hydrogen from methane at landfills and hydrogen from bacteria [64], are continually being explored. If electrolysis is used to generate hydrogen, there may have to be an increase in electricity generation to satisfy the need for hydrogen, though the increase may be small, since hydrogen can be produced during off-peak times (e.g., overnight). Methods to generate electricity that have a minimal impact on the environment include nuclear, wind, solar, hydro, and geothermal. It is often said that, at the beginning of the hydrogen economy, most of the hydrogen will still be reformed from natural gas, but as time goes by, society will move towards more ideal sources of energy, such as wind and solar [65]. Although generation and transportation of hydrogen is a major issue in the deployment of fuel cell vehicles, many diverse ideas are being developed to solve the problem. Other obstacles for fuel cell vehicles include improving on-board hydrogen storage, improving fuel cell and battery durability, and increasing the efficiency and the performance of a fuel cell vehicle. The last barrier to commercialization is cost—a true challenge—as fuel cells are still extremely expensive today. Many parts used to work with fuel cells (e.g., power electronic converters) must be custom-made and can be very expensive as a result [66]. However, these costs will decrease as technological processes are improved and components are mass-produced.

Parallel Hybrid