Impact of Fuel Cell and Storage System Improvement on Fuel Consumption and Cost

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Vehicle Technologies Program (VTP) is developing more energyefficient and environmentally friendly highway transportation technologies that will enable America to use less petroleum. The VTP includes studies of the potential benefit of advanced technologies and also attempts to clarify and refine the requirements for vehicle components. Owing to the large number of component and powertrain technologies considered, the benefits of the VTP research and development portfolio were simulated using Autonomie, Argonne National Laboratory’s vehicle simulation tool. This paper evaluates advanced fuel cell and hydrogen storage systems for a midsize car in different model years, in conjunction with advancements in the rest of the powertrain, as part of DOE baseline and scenario analysis (BaSce). In addition, this paper quantifies the fuel displacement and costs of advanced hydrogen storage and fuel cell systems, without considering advancements in the rest of the powertrain.