Title: Self-sustainability of emerging hydrogen refuelling stations and FCEVs in Japan

Authors: Takuya Hasegawa; Kiminori Gemba; Shuichi Ishida

Addresses: Nissan Research Center, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., 1, Natsushima, Yokosuka, 237-8523, Japan ' The Hosei Business School of Innovation Management, Hosei University, 2-17-1 Fujimi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8160, Japan ' Graduate School of Technology Management, Ritsumeikan University, Osaka Ibaraki Campus 2-150 Iwakura-cho, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-8570, Japan

Abstract: Fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are currently in the limelight as the latest generation of zero-emissions vehicles. Over the last 20 years, FCEVs failed to be properly commercialised. In this study, the economy of FCEVs and the hydrogen refuelling station (HRS) infrastructure is presented from a practical perspective based on a detailed analysis of internal combustion engine vehicles and gasoline refuelling stations. The refuelling capacity of self-sustainable HRSs is estimated as 8-38 Nm³/h for FCEVs costing 5 million yen and 14-71 Nm³/h for FCEVs costing 4 million yen. These findings reveal a significant gap in the hydrogen refuelling capacities of a self-sustainable HRS and a full-size HRS (typically 300 Nm³/h) that some current hydrogen initiatives assume. Further, the results indicate that the deployment of self-sustainable HRSs is difficult as long as the target FCEV customers are assumed to be passenger vehicle customers only.

Keywords: fuel cell electric vehicles; FCEVs; internal combustion engines; ICE; hydrogen refuelling stations; gasoline refuelling station; petrol stations; self-sustainability; potential demand; refuelling capacity; self-sustainable refuelling stations.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBSR.2015.072587

International Journal of Business and Systems Research, 2015 Vol.9 No.4, pp.375 - 393

Received: 23 Mar 2015
Accepted: 03 Aug 2015

Published online: 19 Oct 2015 *

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