Environmental impact associated with the substitution of internal combustion vehicles by fuel cell vehicles refueled with hydrogen generated by electrolysis using the power grid. An estimation focused on the Autonomous Region of Murcia (Spain)

J.J. López Cascales, M.C. Juan-Segovia, J. Ibáñez Molina, J. Sánchez Vera and P.M. Vivo Vivo

Renewable Energy, 2015, vol. 77, issue C, 79-85

Abstract: This article explores the possibilities of substituting internal combustion vehicles (ICV) by fuel cell vehicles (FCV) refueled with hydrogen generated by electrolysis during the hours of low demand in the electrical grid, having been estimated that this substitution ratio would be below 25% of the total number of vehicles existing today, against the 100% in the case of using electric vehicles. Furthermore, a network of 322 hydrogen stations would be necessary for refueling the maximum number of fuel cell vehicles, given the actual limitations of the electrical grid for hydrogen generation. Thus, considering that hydrogen used for refueling would be generated by electrolysis using the electrical grid, fuel cell vehicles would only be a 4% less polluting than an internal combustion vehicle. However, if we could achieve a substitution ratio of 25% of the total ICV by FCV, the Autonomous Region of Murcia could avoid the emission of up to 24,500 metric Tons of CO2 to the atmosphere every year. This value contrasts with the 2.2 millions of metric tons of CO2 that could be avoided using electric vehicles.

Keywords: Fuel cell vehicles; Substitution ratio; Pollution; Electrolysis; Electric vehicles; Electrical power grid (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148114008131
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:77:y:2015:i:c:p:79-85

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2014.11.082

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().