Transforming road freight transportation from fossils to hydrogen: Opportunities and challenges

Abstract

Hydrogen-based transportation has gained popularity and has presented significant growth over the past few years, providing an excellent platform for capitalizing on natural resources while attaining global carbon policies and sustainability targets. However, lack of infrastructure, cost of fuel cell vehicles and hydrogen fuel, and absence of established hydrogen supply chains have been identified as critical challenges of hydrogen-based mobility. Despite current studies predominantly focusing on hydrogen-fueled passenger vehicles and related infrastructure, it was identified that the impacts of hydrogen fuel supply chain for freight transportation from a life cycle thinking perspective have been largely overlooked. This article aims at critically reviewing the existing body-of-knowledge on the current status of hydrogen fueling supply chain and exploring the potential of integrating hydrogen fuel for road freight transportation. Accordingly, the current status of alternative fuel use for freight transportation is discussed over technical, economic, and environmental dimensions outlining its benefits and challenges. Moreover, the pertinence of innovative and established methods of hydrogen production, distribution, and storage for freight transportation are evaluated based on a comprehensive literature review. This study reveals that the transformation of freight transportation into low-emission alternative fuels would require a comprehensive multicriteria assessment that includes technical, economic, environmental, and social feasibilities over the life cycle of the freight vehicle and the fuel supply chain. Moreover, decision parameters affecting the optimal fuel selection process were established through this study, while providing insights on the future prospects for hydrogen-fueled freight transformation in Canada.

Keywords:

• Freight transportation
• hydrogen fuel cell vehicles
• hydrogen refueling infrastructure
• hydrogen supply chain
• life cycle thinking

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the NSERC-CREATE-IISC program.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the NSERC-CREATE-IISC program.