Cost-benefit analysis of a hydrogen supply chain deployment case for fuel cell vehicles use in Midi-Pyrénées region

Abstract

Nowadays, hydrogen is increasingly being promoted as an alternative energy carrier for mobility and stationary fuel cell system applications. Yet, the challenge of developing a future commercial hydrogen economy still remains through the deployment of a viable hydrogen supply chain (HSC) and an increasing fuel cell vehicle market share, which allow to narrow the existing cost difference regarding the conventional fossil fuel vehicle market. In this work, the hydrogen fuel cell vehicle (FCV) market penetration from 2020 to 2050, as a substitute for internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) in the French region of Midi-Pyrénées, is evaluated from a social and governmental perspective. To do so, two cost-benefit analyses (CBAs), each one regarding each point of view, have been conducted to determine whether the hydrogen mobility deployment increases enough the social welfare to compensate its costs and, therefore, should be implemented. The results found are sustained by a HSC deployment, performed previously through an optimization process, that adapts to the region and to the hydrogen needs estimated. These results show that in 2050 the costs are not fully compensated. Nevertheless, the fact of incorporating the externalities helps to finance an important proportion of these costs from 2020 to 2050, even being able to fully compensate them before 2070.