Value chain development for hydrogen refuelling in road transports
The events involving the Russian invasion acted as a catalyst for Europe to acknowledge the critical importance of diversifying its energy sources and diminishing its dependence on fossil fuels. This occurrence directly supports the continent's objective of decarbonization by facilitating the i...
| Autores: | , |
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| Formato: | tesis de maestría |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2023 |
| País: | España |
| Recursos: | Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) |
| Repositorio: | UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/398490 |
| Acesso em linha: | https://hdl.handle.net/2117/398490 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palavra-chave: | Battery charging stations (Electric vehicles) -- Sweden -- Planning -- Economic aspects Climate change mitigation -- Sweden -- Planning Hydrogen as fuel -- Sweden -- Forecasting -- Economic aspects Estacions de càrrega (Vehicles elèctrics) -- Suècia -- Planificació -- Aspectes econòmics Canvis climàtics -- Mitigació -- Suècia -- Planificació Hidrogen com a combustible -- Suècia -- Previsió -- Aspectes econòmics Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Energies::Recursos energètics renovables::Biocombustibles Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Desenvolupament humà i sostenible::Desenvolupament sostenible::Energia i sostenibilitat |
| Resumo: | The events involving the Russian invasion acted as a catalyst for Europe to acknowledge the critical importance of diversifying its energy sources and diminishing its dependence on fossil fuels. This occurrence directly supports the continent's objective of decarbonization by facilitating the implementation of renewable energy systems, saving energy, and advancing on the establishment of modern regulatory frameworks that support different technologies. The most energy intensive sectors should the first to be addressed, such as industry and transportation in Europe. Considering that the last is mainly fuelled by fossil fuels with significant emissions, it is imperative to transition its energy supply to low-emission alternatives. Over the past few years, the transportation industry has primarily centered its efforts on electrification as the top-notch approach to overhaul its operations. However, the adoption of batteries and plug-in hybrids as the primary technologies has been minor, capturing only a meager market share of 18% in 2021. Consequently, an equal deployment of complementary low-emission technologies is necessary to make a greater impact on the market and effectively tackle specific requirements, conditions, and tasks. Low-emissions hydrogen is one of the feasible technologies that can help achieve the decarbonization objectives in this sector, due to its energy density and versatility. Acknowledging such an alternative, the EU is recently backing its deployment under several strategies and regulatory frameworks, but still the development of a hydrogen market and ecosystem is at an early stage. Sweden, a country with strict emission regulations currently holds one of the cleanest grids in Europe, giving it great potential for low-emission hydrogen production through electrolysis, which is being exploited by the industry. As one of the member states of the EU, this Nordic country must adopt the guidelines regarding hydrogen development, which includes the deployment of a refuelling infrastructure across the territory. Nevertheless, it is essential to construct a strong business model for hydrogen mobility that will enable its long-term deployment, entice a greater number of stakeholders, mitigate financial risks, and accelerate market development. Naturally, various aspects of its value chain can influence the desired outcome, and it is these aspects that this project aimed to investigate and evaluate. On one hand, by incorporating perspectives from various industrial stakeholders and literature research, the development of a value chain cost model helped identifying key factors that could make competitive the hydrogen technologies for mobility, such as electricity procurement and subsidies for CAPEX and OPEX. On the other hand, under the same perspectives a regulatory framework assessment brought light to important gaps along the chain, such as the transmission of H2, and the lack of coordination in the promotion and support of the hydrogen ecosystem and market guidelines. One clear advantage is the momentum and knowledge that the industry is building up for H2, which the country must capitalise on by investing in technologies and developing policies that accelerate the development phase. On the concluding remarks shaped as a 10-points checklist for a robust business model, the highlights encompass the need to secure revenue streams along the chain, cost parity with current technologies, acceleration and certainty of permitting processes, standardisation, and a stronger HRS infrastructure and offtakers that match supply with demand, among the previously mentioned |
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