Why internal combustion engines and fuel cells will both play a role in a future hydrogen society

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Why internal combustion engines and fuel cells will both play a role in a future hydrogen society

Lüdiger, Thomas

The transport sector is facing stringent greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets in all regions around the globe. The use of green hydrogen as an energy carrier is expected to play a key role in the defossilization of the transport sector. This will be enabled by technological advancements and the plans of various national governments to establish a broad hydrogen supply infrastructure. Especially for medium and heavy commercial vehicles, hydrogen fueled powertrains can become an attractive and competitive zero-emission solution.

In this publication, FEV compares the competitiveness of fuel cell (FC) powertrains with hydrogen internal combustion engines (ICEs) for various use-cases. For commercial vehicles, the total cost of ownership (TCO) is a key purchasing criterion. But further aspects such as payload, uptime, interoperability, access to low/zero-emission zones, etc. are also relevant to assess the competitiveness of a powertrain solution. Against these criteria, vehicles powered with fuel cells and hydrogen internal combustion engines are analyzed to forecast their market relevance towards 2030 and beyond.

In addition, the possibility of retrofitting hydrogen-based powertrains into “conventional” commercial vehicles as a means of defossilizing the existing vehicle fleet is being investigated.