How many jobs would building a nationwide hydrogen FCV infrastructure create?

[Guns Guns Guns]

A sustainable technology for clean transport is the Fuel Cell Vehicle (FCV), an electric vehicle powered by a hydrogen fuel cell, which is a battery fuelled by hydrogen.

Such vehicles are as clean, silent and sustainable as Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs).

They would be able to refuel nearly as fast as petroleum-fueled vehicles, making them practical for long trips.

The Well-to-Wheel (WtW) energy efficiency (including production, compression and transport of hydrogen) of FCVs is much lower than for ICVs) when hydrogen is produced from electricity.

Hydrogen is produced by coal gasification with CO2 capture and storage (CCS). This clean, near-zero-emission process is quite sustainable since coal reserves are huge.

Hydrogen is also produced by steam reforming of natural gas (CH4 + 2H2O --> CO2 + 4H2). This is today the most common hydrogen production method. It is a good way of using our reasonably abundant natural gas reserves.

In that case preliminary computations indicate that FCVs have a WtW efficiency of 27%, which is:

• Much higher than current internal combustion vehicles (14.5% for petrol and 17.5 for diesel),
• Higher than BEVs powered by the average EU electricity mix (24%),
• Similar to BEVs powered by fuel cell power plants (26%),

Fuel cells could become an excellent option for vehicles having to cover long distances, such as buses, fork-lifts, captive fleets, long-haul trucks and boats, which are not well suited for other electric technologies. Also, these applications would only require a limited number of hydrogen refueling stations, which would simplify their spread.

There are several other applications where fuel cells will likely provide significant benefits, such as power generators (for instance, in hospitals), cogeneration plants (converting natural gas into electricity and steam) and local power units in buildings and homes, converting natural gas into electricity and hot water.






http://www.going-electric.org/why/el...hicles/fcv.htm