To What Extent Will Hydrogen Fuel-Cell or Battery Electric Vehicles Replace Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles in the Usa in Next 20 Years?

To what extent will Hydrogen Fuel-cell or Battery electric vehicles replace Internal Combustion Engine vehicles in the USA in next 20 years?

EAP Research Project

Final Draft

Amir Amangaliyev

0627

Word count: 2252

Abstract

At the present time it is known that increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and pollution, rapid oil depletion are proving to be one of the major challenges due to the usage of diesel and gasoline vehicles. In contemporary society the one of the most contributors to the GHG emissions are transportation vehicles, especially vehicles with internal combustion engine (ICE). Consequently, to reduce these gas emissions, the US government should look for alternatives to the conventional cars. The purpose of this paper is to present best alternative to the ICE vehicles. This research project has studied a variety of research on this topic. This review paper examines two types of electric cars, which contribute less in these emissions. It also indicates which vehicle is most approvable to use for the US roads. The assessment was done by series of comparing factors, such as efficiency, cost, charging time and specific energy. The given results explain that fuel cell vehicle met most of the requirements of customers. According to the findings of this research, the conclusion can be drawn that FCV is more likely to take the place of conventional vehicles in the US by 2040. However, the research also states that there is no need to choose only of them, as they can coexist together.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction        1

2. Efficiency        2

2.1 Well-to-wheel efficiency (WtW)        2

2.2 Range and Storage Volume        3

3. Specific Energy        5

4.  Charging time        6

5. GHG emissions        7

6. Cost        7

7. Conclusion        8

Reference List        9

Appendices        10

1. Introduction

In contemporary society road transport is the main cause of growing share of world emissions of carbon dioxide. Between 1990 and 2016 these greenhouse gas emissions, which comes from on-road transport, have risen by approximately 29% (U.S Energy Information Administration 2018). Therefore, during last three decades engineers have created vehicles with an electric motor in order to reduce harmful air pollution from traffic fumes. Using electric vehicles instead of traditional vehicles that run on a carbon based fuels is one of the most popular means of protecting air against pollution. The urban US is one of the countries which suffers from this contaminated air pollution (Kalghatgi 2018, 969). In addition to this, the public health in the US will be affected by continuous growth of pollution as much as world climate. As an example, the percentage of an American people, who live in space where air pollution reached dangerous levels, is 60% (Offer et al. 2010). Therefore, it has been suggested that the US government should look for some alternatives to traditional cars, which is crucial to the society’s well-being. An all-electric vehicle (EV), which consumes energy to drive from electricity, is the only applicable substitution to ICE vehicle. In this paper two types of electric cars are considered as being a road transport system, which is able to be managed at a certain level with zero emissions. The first is Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV), which consumes electricity from its battery (usually lithium-ion), and the hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle (FCV) is the second type, which produces electricity by using stored hydrogen and oxygen from the air. The main purpose of this research is concentrated on the comparison of two types of electric cars, Battery Electric Vehicle and hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle, and analyzing which is the most competitive. This paper will analyze the positive and negative aspects of both BEV and FCV, in conjunction with comparing factors in order to analyze whether FCV or BEV will be the best replacement for ICE vehicles. Hydrogen fuel cells will be a better choice in the US by 2040 owing to reliability, durability, mobility and energy storage. However, the technology of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles is less available due to hydrogen gas is difficult to produce.

2. Efficiency

2.1 Well-to-wheel efficiency (WtW)

Efficiency occurs as one of the most essential aspects in comparing and analyzing electric vehicles. For this research, efficiency is defined as well-to-wheel efficiency and range. On the question of well-to-wheel efficiency, FCV (31.2-41.6%) is less accepted than BEV (21.3-66.5%) (Pollet et al. 2012, 248).[pic 1]

Figure 1. Typical well-to-tank, tank-to-wheel and well-to-wheel efficiencies for each vehicle technology. Source: Pollet et al 2012

WtW is the efficiency, which examines the source of energy for vehicles powered by different propulsion technologies, also known as life cycle assessment. This feature of EV tends to be most important to electric vehicle users. Both vehicle types seems to be in disadvantage in terms of eco-friendliness, however BEV is more feasible than FCV at this point (Kosai et al. 2018). The problem is about eco-friendliness of electricity due to being an important source for BEV and FCV. Although it is obvious that it is needed for charging vehicles with a battery, for FCV electricity is a source to produce hydrogen from sustainable energy sources by electrolysis. Consequently, it has been necessarily recommended to ensure a stable permanent set of various electricity sources in order to lower the percentage of carbon dioxide emissions. The use of renewable substances such as water, biomass, solar energy, wind and geothermal energy, which are also environmentally friendly sources of electricity, has risen significantly. Recent studies show that FCVs are involved in producing more greenhouse gases than BEV vehicles (Moreno-Benito et al. 2017, 110).  In this part of evaluation, the BEV is apparently remarkable over FCV. This high efficiency is because of very little energy is dissipated in the drivetrain. Generally, BEV is represented as only substitute technology that offers an efficiency jump in specific mobility, wasting up to four less energy than today’s conventional cars (Hongrui et al. 2012). However, BEV is unable to cover all flexibility demands by cause of range restrictions, which means that other technologies (ICE and FCV) should be gone through sustainability-optimized conditions.