Performance, emissions and economic analyses of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles

The transport sector is considered to be a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, as this sector emits about one-fourth of global CO2 emissions. Transport emissions contribute toward climate change and have been linked to adverse health impacts. Therefore, alternative and sustainable transport options are urgent for decarbonising the transport sector and mitigating those issues. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are a potential alternative to conventional vehicles, which can play a significant role in decarbonising the future transport sector. This study critically analyses the recent works related to hydrogen fuel cell integration into vehicles, modelling and experimental investigations of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles with various powertrains. This study also reviews and analyses the performance, energy management strategies, lifecycle cost and emissions of fuel cell vehicles. Previous literature suggested that the fuel consumption and well-to-wheel greenhouse gas emissions of hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicles are significantly lower than that of conventional internal combustion vehicles. Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles consume about 29–66 % less energy and cause approximately 31–80 % less greenhouse gas emissions than conventional vehicles. Despite this, the lifecycle cost of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles has been estimated to be 1.2–12.1 times higher than conventional vehicles. Even though there has been recent progress in energy management in hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles, there are a number of technical and economic challenges to the commercialisation of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. This study presents current knowledge gaps and details future research directions in relation to the research advancement of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.