Self-sustainability of emerging hydrogen refuelling stations and FCEVs in Japan

Fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) are currently in the limelight as the latest generation of zero-emissions vehicles. Over the last 20 years, FCEVs failed to be properly commercialised. In this study, the economy of FCEVs and the hydrogen refuelling station (HRS) infrastructure is presented from a practical perspective based on a detailed analysis of internal combustion engine vehicles and gasoline refuelling stations. The refuelling capacity of self-sustainable HRSs is estimated as 8-38 Nm³/h for FCEVs costing 5 million yen and 14-71 Nm³/h for FCEVs costing 4 million yen. These findings reveal a significant gap in the hydrogen refuelling capacities of a self-sustainable HRS and a full-size HRS (typically 300 Nm³/h) that some current hydrogen initiatives assume. Further, the results indicate that the deployment of self-sustainable HRSs is difficult as long as the target FCEV customers are assumed to be passenger vehicle customers only.