Abstract:

The latest pre-production vehicles on the market show that the major technical challenges posed by integrating a fuel cell system (FCS) within a vehicle—compactness, safety, autonomy, reliability, cold starting—have been met. Regarding the ongoing maturity of fuel cell systems dedicated to road transport, the present article examines the advances still needed to move from a functional but niche product to a mainstream consumer product. It seeks to address difficulties not covered by more traditional innovation approaches. At least in long-distance heavy-duty vehicles, fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) are going to play a key role in the path to zero-emissions in one or two decades. Hence, the present study also addresses the structuring elements of the complete chain: the latter includes hydrogen production, storage, and distribution. Green hydrogen appears to be one of the potential uses of renewable energies. The greener the electricity is, the greater the advantage for hydrogen since it permits to economically store large energy quantities on seasonal rhythms. Furthermore, natural hydrogen may become a viable economic option, making fuel cell vehicles a viable and ecologically acceptable alternative to battery electric vehicles. As soon as renewable energy becomes more widely available, hydrogen in combination with the fuel cell will achieve a large-scale usage of hydrogen in road transport, based on its own functional benefits for onboard systems.