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Evaluation of Fuel Cell Auxiliary Power Units for Heavy-Duty Diesel Trucks

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  • Brodrick, Christie-Joy
  • Lipman, Timothy
  • Farshchi, Mohammad
  • Lutsey, Nicholas
  • Dwyer, Harry
  • Sperling, Daniel
  • Gouse, S. William
  • King, Foy
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    Abstract

    A large number of heavy-duty trucks idle a significant amount. Heavy-duty line-haul engines idle about 20-40% of the time the engine is running, depending on season and operation. Drivers idle engines to power climate control devices (e.g., heaters and air conditioners) and sleeper compartment accessories (e.g., refrigerators, microwave ovens, and televisions) and to avoid start-up problems in cold weather. Idling increases air pollution and energy use, as well as wear and tear on engines. Efforts to reduce truck idling in the US have been sporadic, in part because it is widely viewed in the trucking industry that further idling restriction would unduly compromise driver comfort and truck operations. The auxiliary power unites (APUs) available to replace the idling of the diesel traction engine all have had limited trucking industry acceptance. Fuel cells are a promising APU technology. Fuel cell APUs have the potential to greatly reduce emissions and energy use and save money. IN this paper, we estimate costs and benefits of fuel cell APUs. We calculate the payback period for fuel cell APUs to be about 2.6-4.5 years. This estimate is uncertain since future fuel cell costs are unknown and cost savings from idling vary greatly across the truck fleet. The payback period is particularly sensitive to diesel fuel consumption at idle. Given the large potential environmental and economic benefits of fuel cell APUs, the first major commercial application of fuel cells may be as truck APUs.

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    File URL: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/1bt204qt.pdf;origin=repeccitec
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    Bibliographic Info

    Paper provided by Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis in its series Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series with number qt1bt204qt.

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    Date of creation: 01 Jun 2002
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    Handle: RePEc:cdl:itsdav:qt1bt204qt

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    Related research

    Keywords: fuel cell; truck; diesel; power unit; evaluation;

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    Cited by:
    1. Tzeng, Gwo-Hshiung & Lin, Cheng-Wei & Opricovic, Serafim, 2005. "Multi-criteria analysis of alternative-fuel buses for public transportation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(11), pages 1373-1383, July.
    2. Lipman, Timothy & Shaheen, Susan, 2005. "Integrated Hydrogen and Intelligent Transportation Systems Evaluation for the California Department of Transportation," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt63d0t5wb, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.

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