Potential for Hydrogen as a Transportation Fuel in British Columbia: Resource Assessment and GHG Emissions Analysis

British Columbia has the target to reduce 80% greenhouse gas (GHG) by 2050 from 2007 levels. As road transportation is the second largest source of GHG emissions, switching to carbon-neutral fuels could be an effective contribution to the aggressive decarbonization target. In this study, the authors investigated the hydrogen potential to reduce GHG emissions from different vehicle classes in British Columbia. Also, the authors assessed the availability of local energy resources to support the hydrogen demand in the province. The resource assessment showed that wind is the most reliable renewable resource to support hydrogen for different vehicle classes. However, in the case of widespread adoption of fuel cell powertrains, a diversified mix of renewables are required to contribute to hydrogen production. Natural gas and coal are the widely available non-renewable resources to produce hydrogen, however, their competitiveness in terms of GHG emissions is dependent on adopting carbon capture technologies. To determine the hydrogen decarbonization potential, the Well-to-Tank GHG emissions analysis was performed for several hydrogen pathways. The results showed that the on-site electrolysis-based hydrogen pathway using hydroelectricity and the central hydrogen production pathway using biomass gasification have the lowest Well-to-Tank GHG emissions. The results also indicated that the freight vehicles running on fuel cell can reduce up to 13 times more GHG emissions than the same number of fuel cell passenger vehicles.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADC70 Standing Committee on Transportation Energy.
• Authors:
  • Talebian, Hoda
  • Herrera, Omar E
  • Tran, Martino
  • Mérida, Walter
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 7p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Exhaust gases; Greenhouse gases; Highway transportation; Hydrogen fuels; Renewable energy sources; Wind
• Uncontrolled Terms: Well-to-wheel fuel cycle
• Geographic Terms: British Columbia
• Subject Areas: Energy; Environment; Highways;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01662680
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-03352
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 13 2018 2:13PM