A review on best practices using hydrogen fuel-cell electric vehicles in public transport

Abstract

Road transportation sector is responsible for 21.8% of EU’s CO2eq emissions forcing the shift to a de-carbonised mobility scheme, whilst maintaining competitiveness and satisfying the increasing demand mobility needs. Thus, the development of electric vehicles (EVs) and the investigation of alternative fuels by the research community have emerged. Hydrogen is considered a good substitute fuel for the road transport sector if it is produced from renewable energy sources. Several cities have already started to replace a percentage of their conventional public transport fleet with fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEV). This paper provides a detailed presentation of several best practices applied in small-medium scale European cities and regions. Best practices are investigated from a city-centred point of view to provide a clearer understanding of the hydrogen initiatives performed in the specific areas. The selected scenarios have demonstrated and implemented different state-of-the-art hydrogen applications in the hydrogen mobility supply chain, which could be potentially tested in other regions with similar geographical, economical and transport activities. Finally, the outcomes of this review study identify different challenges, barriers and opportunities of hydrogen mobility applications which other cities should take into consideration before investing in this technology.