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The Northeast Advanced Vehicle Consortium interviewed 44 of the world’s leading fuel cell and advanced vehicle technology professionals about the future of fuel cells for transportation. Their findings are in the 90-page report Future Wheels, available for free download.
Most experts believe hydrogen will be stored on board in passenger and transit vehicles in the long-term. Hydrogen may be derived from many feed stocks, such as natural gas, ethanol or geothermal, depending on what is available regionally. The majority of experts oppose the use of methanol for health and safety reasons.
Breakthroughs in hydrogen storage technology would accelerate the acceptance and commercialization of fuel cell vehicles and should be the focus of research and development efforts. Given the hundreds of millions of dollars being poured into fuel cell research and development, the time is right for a “paradigm shift” in storage and infrastructure technology. The experts interviewed expect the fuel cell market for transportation will first develop in the bus fleet market at government subsidized prices, and that significant market share for light duty vehicles is more than ten years out.
The jury is out on the role of hybrids going forward. Some experts view them as transitional technologies, others believe they pose a threat to the fuel cell vehicles market, and others
see them as complementing fuel cell vehicles in that fuel cell vehicles will benefit from advances in hybrid drive train technologies.
http://www.navc.org
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