This paper shows the results of an in-depth techno-economic analysis of the public transport sector in a small to midsize city and its surrounding area. Public battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell buses are comparatively evaluated by means of a total cost of ownership (TCO) model building on historical data and a projection of market prices. Additionally, a structural analysis of the public transport system of a specific city is performed, assessing best fitting bus lines for the use of electric or hydrogen busses, which is supported by a brief acceptance evaluation of the local citizens. The TCO results for electric buses show a strong cost decrease until the year 2030, reaching 23.5% lower TCOs compared to the conventional diesel bus. The optimal electric bus charging system will be the opportunity (pantograph) charging infrastructure. However, the opportunity charging method is applicable under the assumption that several buses share the same station and there is a “hotspot” where as many as possible bus lines converge. In the case of electric buses for the year 2020, the parameter which influenced the most on the TCO was the battery cost, opposite to the year 2030 in where the bus body cost and fuel cost parameters are the ones that dominate the TCO, due to the learning rate of the batteries. For H2 buses, finding a hotspot is not crucial because they have a similar range to the diesel ones as well as a similar refueling time. H2 buses until 2030 still have 15.4% higher TCO than the diesel bus system. Considering the benefits of a hypothetical scaling-up effect of hydrogen infrastructures in the region, the hydrogen cost could drop to 5 €/kg. In this case, the overall TCO of the hydrogen solution would drop to a slightly lower TCO than the diesel solution in 2030. Therefore, hydrogen buses can be competitive in small to midsize cities, even with limited routes. For hydrogen buses, the bus body and fuel cost make up a large part of the TCO. Reducing the fuel cost will be an important aspect to reduce the total TCO of the hydrogen bus.
The tenth H2 refueling station of the German federal state of Baden‐Württemberg was commissioned on September 6, 2017. The Karlsruhe H2 refueling station, located at the multi‐fuels station of Total, is the first one equipped with an onsite hydrogen production using a solid oxide electrolyzer (SOE) system. In the present work, details about the SOE system equipment are reported. Electrical consumption of the integrated stacks module (ISM) and the hot balance of plant (BoP) for steam generation and inlet gas pre‐heating, was monitored during 240 h of steady‐state operation under 100% steam. The average cell voltage of the 90 cells composing the ISM was 1.35 V at 0.4 A cm−2 current density. ISM efficiency was around 91.5% HHVAC considering 100% faradaic efficiency and including the conversion of the AC/DC power supply. Due to the consumption of the hot BoP and system auxiliaries for safety and control, achieved overall system efficiency was 61.4% HHVAC. Independently from electric steam production, around 10% reduction of the ISM electricity consumption could be feasible with the optimization of the inlet air flowrate. Indeed, adapting the inlet air flowrate as function of the outlet hydrogen flowrate would allow reducing the electricity need for inlet air pre‐heating.
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