Hydrogen Fuel Cell Road Vehicles: State of the Art and Perspectives

Olivier Bethoux
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Olivier Bethoux: GeePs, Group of Electrical Engineering—Paris, UMR CNRS 8507, CentraleSupélec, Univ. Paris-Sud, Univ. Paris-Saclay, Sorbonne Université, 3 rue Joliot-Curie, 91192 Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 21, 1-28

Abstract: Driven by a small number of niche markets and several decades of application research, fuel cell systems (FCS) are gradually reaching maturity, to the point where many players are questioning the interest and intensity of its deployment in the transport sector in general. This article aims to shed light on this debate from the road transport perspective. It focuses on the description of the fuel cell vehicle (FCV) in order to understand its assets, limitations and current paths of progress. These vehicles are basically hybrid systems combining a fuel cell and a lithium-ion battery, and different architectures are emerging among manufacturers, who adopt very different levels of hybridization. The main opportunity of Fuel Cell Vehicles is clearly their design versatility based on the decoupling of the choice of the number of Fuel Cell modules and hydrogen tanks. This enables manufacturers to meet various specifications using standard products. Upcoming developments will be in line with the crucial advantage of Fuel Cell Vehicles: intensive use in terms of driving range and load capacity. Over the next few decades, long-distance heavy-duty vehicles and fleets of taxis or delivery vehicles will develop based on range extender or mild hybrid architectures and enable the hydrogen sector to mature the technology from niche markets to a large-scale market.

Keywords: dihydrogen; fuel cell; battery; hybrid power source; fuel cell vehicle; thermodynamic; Future prospects (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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