How liquid hydrogen production methods affect emissions in liquid hydrogen powered vehicles?

Abstract

Emissions variations of liquid hydrogen (LH2) production methods in liquid hydrogen powered vehicles are investigated in this study. Volatile organic compounds (VOC), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx), particulate matters (PM10 & PM2.5), sulfur oxides (SOx), and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which are on well-to-wheel (WTW) basis, are evaluated for 2013 model year's cars in the target year of 2018. GREET software is utilized for the emissions. When the average values of all emissions are compared, hydrogen production by the solar power, nuclear, and electrolysis methods have the lowest emissions, respectively, and hydrogen production by coal and electricity methods have the highest emissions, respectively. On the other hand, it is found that in all emission types and hydrogen production methods, fuel cell vehicles (FCV) emit less emission than spark ignition hybrid electric vehicles (SI HEV) and SI HEVs emit less emission than spark ignition internal combustion engine vehicles (SI ICEV). Emissions decrease by 22.4% in SI HEVs compared to SI ICEVs, 35.1% in FCVs compared to SI HEVs, and 49.6% in FCVs compared to SI ICEVs for average of all emissions. (c) 2020 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.