Study: Affordable hydrogen will require fracking, cheap natural gas [w/video] Are you an aspiring New or Used Car Buyer looking for your dream car? Visit Cars4sa.co.za Filed under: Hydrogen Earlier this week, Toyota Motor Sales senior vice president of automotive operations, Bob Cater, predicted that the cost to refuel a hydrogen vehicle would be around $30 to go 300 miles at some point in the future. Thats around ten cents a mile, or about what it costs to drive an EV today. This will require hydrogen to cost around $5-to-$7 per kilogram. How realistic is this? A new analysis from the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis called The Hydrogen Transition takes a closer look at some of the numbers involved in the hydrogen economy and reveals its all a bit murkier than Toyota would have us believe. The next three to four years will be critical for determining whether hydrogen vehicles are just a few years behind electric vehicles, rather than decades. - Joan Odgen For starters, lets acknowledge that the researchers at UC Davis seem to be optimistic about hydrogens chances. The lead author Joan Ogden (pictured), said in a statement that, We seem to be tantalizingly close to the beginning of a hydrogen transition. But theres no guarantee. The next three to four years will be critical for determining whether hydrogen vehicles are just a few years behind electric vehicles, rather than decades, she said. There are three places where the study thinks a targeted regional investment of $100-$200 million in support of 100 stations for about 50,000 FCVs would be enough to make hydrogen cost-competitive with gasoline on a cost-per-mile basis. You can probably guess the three locations: California, Japan and Germany. As for the timeline, the study predicts that it will take five years to get to $7.50 per kg and 12 to make further progress to $6 per kg. But this has a cost: The boom in low-cost natural gas makes possible low-cost hydrogen, so if youre not a fan of fracking, then you might want to steer clear of an H2 car. Then theres this: For the US as a whole, we estimate that about $1 billion investment would be needed in a series of lighthouse cities to bring the cost of hydrogen to $7/kg, a fuel cost roughly competitive with gasoline on a cent per mile basis. In other words, Carter might be right, but there are a lot of details to understand. For more, read Ogdens article, download the 57-page white paper (or 8-page executive summary) and watch the simplified explanation in the video below. Its all well worth your time. Continue reading Affordable hydrogen will require fracking, cheap natural gas [w/video] Affordable hydrogen will require fracking, cheap natural gas [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Thu, 14 Aug 2014 18:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 22:55:51 +0000
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