sales of FCEVs can achieve ZEV without the immense pressures on the battery supply chain of large BEV battery packs, so helping to keep a lid on costs.

So can PHEVs plus biofuels.  Replace 80% of petroleum motor fuels with grid power and the other 20% with biofuels, problem solved.  We already have the infrastructure for this.

I have never understood the religious wars on the subject, as fuel cells and batteries not only rely on much of the same technology, but are deeply and fundamentally complementary.

The problems are infrastructure and the hydrogen supply chain.

Look at the numbers here.  This post talks about 100 stations.  There are something like SIXTY THOUSAND filling stations in the USA, and over 600 for sale right now.  You can't drive an FCEV cross-country.  Heck, you can't even drive an NGV cross-country on I-90, and natural gas service is EVERYWHERE.  To make FCEVs viable, you'll need a goodly fraction of a trillion dollars in new infrastructure.  You'll also need a new pipeline system, because delivering H2 by truck is simply not practical.

The other problem is supply.  The most economical ways to make hydrogen are by steam methane reforming and coal gasification.  "Green" hydrogen costs several times as much, and nobody will pay for it; worse, there are immense problems with guaranteed delivery of energy.  Hypedrogen is the FF interests' way of staying in the game.

Renewable hydrogen costs are coming down rapidly with falling costs of both renewables and electrolysers, aside from the possibility of using other methods which are at an earlier stage.

PHEVs migrate nicely to PHEV FCEVs, as Toyota are to introduce initially in a Prius in 2023.

Several countries including the UK and Germany are to introduce hydrogen simply pumped mixed into the NG networks.

I don't really understand arguments to the effect that rolling out infrastructure is impossible.

One might argue the same, that high speed rail is impossible, taking California as the exemplar.

It has not stopped others rolling out many thousands of miles of it.

Somewhere along the line American can-do has become American can't do.

Hydrogen infrastructure is being rolled out right now in many countries.

" I don't think installing thousands of miles of pipe lines to replace NG or petro pipe lines with H2 is the answer."

Those thousands of miles of hydrogen pipeline not only move hydrogen to the stations, they also store hydrogen. Hydrogen production continues 24/7. At night, the pressure in the pipelines increases as more hydrogen is produced than is needed and then during the day pressure decreases as more hydrogen is consumed than produced.

So the pipelines perform like batteries but far less expensive and with a far greater service life.

On top of this, a hydrogen station connected to a pipeline needs very little on site hydrogen storage. This increases safety and decreases construction cost. Nor does the station require room for an 18 wheeler to park while delivering hydrogen.

And, of course, pipelines eliminate the energy needed to liquefy hydrogen for trucking and the cost of the trucking itself.

Of course, the ROI of building pipelines will vary depending on population density (hydrogen consumption density?) so onsite production and trucking will have their places.

Dave Mart,

Could you post some links about the costs of electrolyzers? The last I checked PEM had not caught up to alkaline, and I do not have the impression that alkaline costs are dropping rapidly.

“So, today we sell electrolysers at the 10MW level at £800,000 per megawatt... we’ll be at £500,000/MW at the 100MW level in the next three years,” says Graham Cooley. (of ITM)

Assuming a ten year life span, 80% availability, 55kwh/kg of hydrogen:

$687,000 / [.8 X 3650 X 24 X 1000 / 55] = 54 cents per kg cost of electrolyzer equipment.

David Levesque

Thanks for the links. The NEL press release talks about 1.5$/kg costs in certain markets by 2025 but does not specify which markets. For solar electricity dedicated generation for hydrogen production in high insolation locations might approach 40% capacity factor but in order to deliver such hydrogen across the globe either a supergrid or liquid carriers would be required thus reducing effective capacity factor due to energy losses associated with transportation.