IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/energy/v281y2023ics0360544223017164.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Prioritizing the hydrogen pathways for fuel cell vehicles: Analysis of the life-cycle environmental impact, economic cost, and environmental efficiency

Author

Listed:
  • Yu, Yadong
  • Guo, Ying
  • Ma, Tieju

Abstract

The deployment of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) is very important for the decarbonization of the transportation sector. While the energy infrastructure is regarded as a critical factor for the deployment of FCVs, it is still unclear which hydrogen pathway of FCVs has the highest environmental efficiency and should be prioritized, thus restricting the development of related energy infrastructures. Therefore, 17 major hydrogen pathways of FCVs in China are designed in this study, and their environmental impacts, economic costs, and environmental efficiencies are evaluated and compared with those of the energy pathway for battery electric vehicles (BEVs). The results show that the pathways with electrolysis hydrogen from renewables have lower emissions and higher economic costs, which is contrary to the pathways with fossil-based hydrogen. Among the 17 pathways, the pathway with hydrogen from coke oven gas has the most life-cycle environmental efficiency and should be prioritized; however, it is still lower than that of the energy pathway for BEVs. As a higher share of renewables in the total electricity generation would lead to a higher environmental efficiency of hydrogen electrolysis, the hydrogen pathway with renewables could potentially be the most cost-efficient pathway with a decrease in the cost of renewables.

Suggested Citation

  • Yu, Yadong & Guo, Ying & Ma, Tieju, 2023. "Prioritizing the hydrogen pathways for fuel cell vehicles: Analysis of the life-cycle environmental impact, economic cost, and environmental efficiency," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 281(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:281:y:2023:i:c:s0360544223017164
    DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2023.128322
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0360544223017164
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.energy.2023.128322?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jahangiri, Mehdi & Rezaei, Mostafa & Mostafaeipour, Ali & Goojani, Afsaneh Raiesi & Saghaei, Hamed & Hosseini Dehshiri, Seyyed Jalaladdin & Hosseini Dehshiri, Seyyed Shahabaddin, 2022. "Prioritization of solar electricity and hydrogen co-production stations considering PV losses and different types of solar trackers: A TOPSIS approach," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 186(C), pages 889-903.
    2. Charnes, A. & Cooper, W. W. & Rhodes, E., 1978. "Measuring the efficiency of decision making units," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 2(6), pages 429-444, November.
    3. Li, Yanfei & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad, 2022. "The economic feasibility of green hydrogen and fuel cell electric vehicles for road transport in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    4. Lopez, Neil Stephen & Tria, Lew Andrew & Tayo, Leo Allen & Cruzate, Rovinna Janel & Oppus, Carlos & Cabacungan, Paul & Isla, Igmedio & Ansay, Arjun & Garcia, Teodinis & Cabarrubias-Dela Cruz, Kevien &, 2021. "Societal cost-benefit analysis of electric vehicles in the Philippines with the inclusion of impacts to balance of payments," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    5. Josef Taalbi & Hana Nielsen, 2021. "The role of energy infrastructure in shaping early adoption of electric and gasoline cars," Nature Energy, Nature, vol. 6(10), pages 970-976, October.
    6. Burton, N.A. & Padilla, R.V. & Rose, A. & Habibullah, H., 2021. "Increasing the efficiency of hydrogen production from solar powered water electrolysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    7. Yang, Zijun & Wang, Bowen & Jiao, Kui, 2020. "Life cycle assessment of fuel cell, electric and internal combustion engine vehicles under different fuel scenarios and driving mileages in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C).
    8. Wu, Wei & Zhai, Chong & Sui, Zengguang & Sui, Yunren & Luo, Xianglong, 2021. "Proton exchange membrane fuel cell integrated with microchannel membrane-based absorption cooling for hydrogen vehicles," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 560-573.
    9. Zixuan Luo & Yang Hu & Huachi Xu & Danhui Gao & Wenying Li, 2020. "Cost-Economic Analysis of Hydrogen for China’s Fuel Cell Transportation Field," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-14, December.
    10. Fan, Jing-Li & Yu, Pengwei & Li, Kai & Xu, Mao & Zhang, Xian, 2022. "A levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) comparison of coal-to-hydrogen with CCS and water electrolysis powered by renewable energy in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    11. Hwang, Jenn-Jiang, 2013. "Sustainability study of hydrogen pathways for fuel cell vehicle applications," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 220-229.
    12. Dyckhoff, H. & Allen, K., 2001. "Measuring ecological efficiency with data envelopment analysis (DEA)," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 132(2), pages 312-325, July.
    13. A. Charnes & W. W. Cooper, 1962. "Programming with linear fractional functionals," Naval Research Logistics Quarterly, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(3‐4), pages 181-186, September.
    14. Pereira, L.G. & Cavalett, O. & Bonomi, A. & Zhang, Y. & Warner, E. & Chum, H.L., 2019. "Comparison of biofuel life-cycle GHG emissions assessment tools: The case studies of ethanol produced from sugarcane, corn, and wheat," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 1-12.
    15. Yuxin Zhu & Dazuo Tian & Feng Yan, 2020. "Effectiveness of Entropy Weight Method in Decision-Making," Mathematical Problems in Engineering, Hindawi, vol. 2020, pages 1-5, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dyckhoff, Harald & Souren, Rainer, 2022. "Integrating multiple criteria decision analysis and production theory for performance evaluation: Framework and review," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 297(3), pages 795-816.
    2. Pyoungsoo Lee, 2022. "Ranking Decision Making for Eco-Efficiency Using Operational, Energy, and Environmental Efficiency," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-18, March.
    3. Junfei Chu & Jie Wu & Qingyuan Zhu & Qingxian An & Beibei Xiong, 2019. "Analysis of China’s Regional Eco-efficiency: A DEA Two-stage Network Approach with Equitable Efficiency Decomposition," Computational Economics, Springer;Society for Computational Economics, vol. 54(4), pages 1263-1285, December.
    4. Azarnoosh Kafi & Behrouz Daneshian & Mohsen Rostamy-Malkhalifeh, 2021. "Forecasting the confidence interval of efficiency in fuzzy DEA," Operations Research and Decisions, Wroclaw University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Management, vol. 31(1), pages 41-59.
    5. Zhang, Yanfang & Wei, Jinpeng & Gao, Qi & Shi, Xunpeng & Zhou, Dequn, 2022. "Coordination between the energy-consumption permit trading scheme and carbon emissions trading: Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    6. Bao-Ngoc Tong & Cheng-Ping Cheng & Lien-Wen Liang & Yi-Jun Liu, 2023. "Using Network DEA to Explore the Effect of Mobile Payment on Taiwanese Bank Efficiency," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-18, April.
    7. Harald Dyckhoff & Katrin Allen, 1999. "Theoretische Begründung einer Effizienzanalyse mittels Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 51(5), pages 411-436, May.
    8. Zhou, Peng & Poh, Kim Leng & Ang, Beng Wah, 2007. "A non-radial DEA approach to measuring environmental performance," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 178(1), pages 1-9, April.
    9. Phung, Manh-Trung & Cheng, Cheng-Ping & Guo, Chuanyin & Kao, Chen-Yu, 2020. "Mixed Network DEA with Shared Resources: A Case of Measuring Performance for Banking Industry," Operations Research Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 7(C).
    10. E G Gomes & M P E Lins, 2008. "Modelling undesirable outputs with zero sum gains data envelopment analysis models," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 59(5), pages 616-623, May.
    11. Chen, Kuan-Chen & Lin, Sun-Yuan & Yu, Ming-Miin, 2022. "Exploring the efficiency of hospital and pharmacy utilizations in Taiwan: An application of dynamic network data envelopment analysis," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    12. Yangxue Ning & Yan Zhang & Guoqiang Wang, 2023. "An Improved DEA Prospect Cross-Efficiency Evaluation Method and Its Application in Fund Performance Analysis," Mathematics, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-15, January.
    13. Trinks, Arjan & Mulder, Machiel & Scholtens, Bert, 2020. "An Efficiency Perspective on Carbon Emissions and Financial Performance," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C).
    14. Richard S. Barr & Kory A. Killgo & Thomas F. Siems & Sheri Zimmel, 1999. "Evaluating the productive efficiency and performance of U.S. commercial banks," Financial Industry Studies Working Paper 99-3, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
    15. M. Lábaj & M. Luptáčik & E. Nežinský, 2014. "Data envelopment analysis for measuring economic growth in terms of welfare beyond GDP," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 41(3), pages 407-424, August.
    16. Tao Liu & Jixia Li & Juan Chen & Shaolei Yang, 2019. "Urban Ecological Efficiency and Its Influencing Factors—A Case Study in Henan Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-20, September.
    17. W D Cook & J Zhu, 2011. "Output-specific input-assurance regions in DEA," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 62(10), pages 1881-1887, October.
    18. Fijałkowska Justyna & Sačer Ivana Mamić & Zyznarska-Dworczak Beata & Sandulescu Maria-Silvia & Garsztka Przemysław & Mokošova Daša, 2023. "The Efficiency of Sustainability Engagement Reported by Banks in Poland, Croatia and Romania," Journal of Intercultural Management, Sciendo, vol. 15(1), pages 94-123, March.
    19. Kao, Chiang & Liu, Shiang-Tai, 2020. "A slacks-based measure model for calculating cross efficiency in data envelopment analysis," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    20. Malte L. Peters & Stephan Zelewski, 2016. "Opportunities and risks of satisficing levels in efficiency analyses from the perspective of sustainable development [Chancen und Risiken von Satisfizierungsgrenzen in Effizienzanalysen aus Perspek," NachhaltigkeitsManagementForum | Sustainability Management Forum, Springer, vol. 24(2), pages 195-199, November.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:energy:v:281:y:2023:i:c:s0360544223017164. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/energy .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.