Especially for light lorries and delivery vans for local distribution

This spring it was revealed that new delivery vans emit just as much nitrogen oxide as the old ones. The plan to set up environmental zones round towns and villages was therefore abandoned, as otherwise no shop or restaurant in the Netherlands would be able to take stock deliveries. In the same period, Paul Lebutsch of ECN presented a study of the present status of fuel cells for vehicles driven by hydrogen. “Our research shows that this technology can be very interesting for urban distribution.”

The Netherlands seems to be becoming fascinated by electric transport. Several large and medium-sized cities wish to switch to electric propulsion for transport purposes. In many cases, this involves electric vehicles that run on batteries. The batteries must be recharged (at night) or swapped for full ones at ‘fuel stations’ en route. But there is also electric transport requiring only a very small battery capacity, in which a fuel cell supplies the electricity needed by the electric motor on the spot.
This other form of transport is based on the fuel cell, which generates electricity directly from hydrogen and oxygen. The fuel cell obtains oxygen from the air, in the same way as a combustion engine. The car stores the hydrogen in a tank, just like a diesel or petrol-driven car does now. The difference is that hydrogen must be transported under high pressure to get sufficient energy into the tank. Many aspects of the vehicles will therefore remain the same, but the combustion engine plus gearbox will become a fuel cell plus electric motor.
In the public domain, those for and against sustainable transport are bombarding each other with arguments. The cost is prohibitive, is one of these. Another is that producing the hydrogen must require an enormous amount of energy. Reasonable questions, in the view of Paul Lebutsch, which deserve a clear answer. “As part of a European study, I examined the sensitivity of the various parameters: cost of various drive units, lifetime of the technology, fuel prices, CO2 surcharges, etcetera. We did this for various vehicles: two and three-wheelers, cars, light lorries and buses. This showed that the technology using fuel cells and hydrogen offers good economic prospects for light lorries and delivery vans.”

Discussion on the basis of figures
Lebutsch carried out his research within the Roads2 HyCom project (www.roads2hy.com). In this European Commission project, researchers examined the technical and social-economic aspects of fuel cell and hydrogen technology, to see what the status of the technology is, what interesting uses exist, and what improvements are necessary to make the technology more competitive. With colleagues from the ECN Hydrogen and Clean Fossil unit, Paul Lebutsch focused on the economic aspects of road transport with fuel cells using hydrogen as fuel. The objective was to move the discussion onwards from exchanging opinions to effective discussion on the basis of figures.

Fuel cell is ideal for town driving
In urban traffic, the fuel cell is in its element. This is primarily a matter of its performance. The diesel engine is difficult or impossible to beat in a lorry or regional bus outside built-up areas. The engine works at an optimum load for long periods in succession. But in urban traffic, the engine often runs while the vehicle is stationary, at traffic lights, crossroads etc. This reduces the performance considerably, as the engine is very inefficient at light loads, and diesel is used up but doesn’t move the car a metre further. “These are the opportunities for fuel cell propulsion,” Lebutsch claims. “In fuel cells, the performance actually improves under light loads. They also contribute to cleaner air (complying with the fine particle standard) in surroundings where this is very desirable: towns and cities. Fuel cell technology will overtake diesel engines first in delivery vans for distribution in towns (shopping delivered to the door by Albert, parcels delivered by couriers).”
The ECN analysis also takes into account the production costs and cost of transporting hydrogen to the fuel stations. This means that ‘fleet’ vehicles will be the first likely choices, as they return regularly to a fixed point. The infrastructure necessary for transporting the hydrogen can therefore be kept within bounds. But the existing infrastructure of fuel stations can also be used successfully for supplying hydrogen. “It only has to be expanded to include hydrogen as an option, as happened in the past with LPG,” Lebutsch observes.

Study report
Finally, Lebutsch points out that his study is not a calculation model that any fleet manager can use to decide what type of vehicles to choose. His report is more suitable for researchers and policy makers who want to know where improvements and lower costs are necessary and what influence various parameters have on costs: Should I focus on improving the performance or cutting the cost of the technology, or on keeping the fuel costs low? “The discussion on this has been very qualitative until now. I have tried to make it quantitative,” Lebutsch explains.
Prompted by the commotion about replacing delivery vans and introducing environmental zones in towns and village centres, the Dutch Retail Association Platform Detailhandel Nederland calculated that 150,000 delivery vans would have to be scrapped prematurely. Replacing some of these by vehicles with fuel cells using hydrogen would act as an extra boost for this promising technology.

Contact
Marcel Weeda
ECN H2SF
Tel.: 0224 56 44 95
E-mail: Marcel Weeda 

Info
A pdf of the report can be accessed and downloaded from here. Scroll to News & Downloads and look for: 28 april 2009 - Opportunities and Synergies.pdf