How to Make Your Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicle Pay for Itself at Night
Grant Strem
Truthful philosophical quantitative cogitator. Especially deep time, planetary geology, and energy systems. Enemy of evil.
Limitations within existing electric transmission and distribution lines will make it hard to meet extra demand from widespread charging of electric vehicles. One solution is distributed electricity production such as solar panels on roofs or hydrogen fuel cells powering the grid.
Imagine owning a vehicle with large hydrogen (H2) tanks, which when parked outside could charge electric cars and when parked at home or at the office could power the grid.
At a low hydrogen price and high electricity price this is economically attractive. Consider two examples. Both assume an 80% conversion efficiency from the H2 tank to electrical output (as demonstrated by Honda) and 10 hours of electric energy sales per night.
The first example assumes 12 kW, 50 Amp, 240 Volt (standard for houses) electric connection, using 4.5 kg H2 per night. Assuming 20 cents per kilo-watt-hour, and hydrogen cost of $2/kg, the revenue from selling electric energy is roughly $450/month. A vehicle with a 50 kg H2 tank (120 pounds) could be filled up once per week and have a driving range exceeding 1000 km even after its weekly electricity sales.
The second example assumes powering the grid or charging electric vehicles for 10 hours per night at Tesla’s standard 250 kW Supercharger rate, requiring 94 kg H2 per night. A vehicle with a 200 kg H2 capacity would need to be fueled every other day but it would generate $9,500 per month at 20 cents per kilo-watt-hour and $2/kg H2 cost. If used 20 hours per day this would produce $19,000/month.
Proton Technologies expects to produce H2 below 50 cents per kilogram from saline water sources or wastewater, so including compression costs and some equipment amortization a reasonable retail price for H2 might be below $2/kg.
Instead of little tanks in little fuel cell cars, imagine large tanks in practical pickup trucks; allowing thousands of miles of range and/or electricity revenue.
Each kg of H2 used in a fuel cell creates 9 liters of pure water. If 1,000,000 pickup trucks use 94,000,000 kg H2 per night, they collectively generate 846,000,000 liters of clean water per night. That works out to 211 US gallons per truck owner per night. Maybe that clean water is useful too!
Consultant at Self Employed
3 年I fully expect Proton to acquire (or get one for free from Toyota) as a demonstrator, to drive around customers and use as showpiece to generate electricity and sell it (not sure if Mirai allows using electricity externally). Proton could also have stationary electricity generation for any surplus H2 it may have. Anyhow: way to go !
Chairman and CEO at Hydrofuel Inc. and Director at Prepared Canada Corp.
4 年ZERO CARBON Green Ammonia from electricity competitive with ZERO CARBON Fossil based NH3 in Canada with $40 - $60 per ton Carbon Tax with no Industry exemptions. https://www.iea.org/reports/the-future-of-hydrogen With electricity at 2 cents per kw and a $40-$60 per ton carbon tax without exemptions it is cost effective to produce #GreenAmmonia with zero carbon emitted, same thing with hydrocarbon based ZERO CARBON ammonia that otherwise emits 2 tons of CO2 for every ton of NH3 costing $6 per ton under Justin Trudeau 90% Industry exemption [PDF] The Future of Hydrogen - G20, June 2019, Japan, p. 142 | IEA https://www.g20karuizawa.go.jp/assets/pdf/The%20future%20of%20Hydrogen.pdf Due to the cost of liquefying and high storage costs, hydrogen is likely to be more costly than other low-carbon alternatives for long-distance maritime transport.In a 15-year first-owner lifetime calculation, a CO2 price of USD 40–230/tCO2 would be required to make ammonia cost-competitive with fossil-based fuels, depending on the delivered cost of ammonia, which will vary by region (Figure 58). The break-even carbon prices for hydrogen are USD 35–45/tCO2 higher than ammonia, mainly due to the higher storage cost resulting from its lower energy density.
Business support. Client Relations, Sales, Finance, Accounting, Nat Resources, BSc Geog, Post Baccalaureate EnviroScience. Legal Cert. Data, Estimating, Design, Markets, Compliance, Logistics, Risk, Growth, Integrity
4 年Interesting.
Truthful philosophical quantitative cogitator. Especially deep time, planetary geology, and energy systems. Enemy of evil.
4 年Chose to model as night-time power sales because people typically have their vehicles parked at home doing nothing at night which also corresponds to zero solar power to the grid. If more detailed power price arbitrages become apparent, owners might consider aiming to be parked and plugged at those times to maximize revenue., or even relocate their vehicle to higher electricity price markets.