Frost & Sullivan's latest analysis of Alternative Fuel
Technologies
Efficient Infrastructure Necessary for Large-Scale Implementation of
Alternative Fuel Technologies
London, 08th November 2004 ? Although regulatory pressures to reduce
greenhouse gas emissions are calling for increased use of alternative fuels
such as natural gas, hydrogen and methanol, the lack of adequate
infrastructure limits their implementation on a wide scale.
The infrastructure to support alternative fuel technologies is currently
restricted to a few countries such as Germany, Italy, Spain and Portugal.
However, in order to replace gasoline completely, a much larger network is
required.
"Discovery of the ideal replacement for gasoline brings with it additional
responsibility in terms of overcoming logistical barriers and finding
efficient means to produce, store and distribute these alternative fuels
over long distances," reiterates Frost & Sullivan Research Analyst Vijay
Shankar Murthy.
Transporting hydrogen over long distances through pipelines is likely to be
a cost effective option. In fact, a majority of the existing pipelines can
be used to transport mixtures of hydrogen and natural gas.
Gas pipelines, in addition to transportation, can also store great
quantities of hydrogen. By regulating the pressure, it is possible to
exploit the benefits of large volume that a pipeline offers as storage
during situations of peak demand.
While pipelines provide a low cost option for high volume hydrogen
delivery, liquefaction is often cost-effective for transporting lower
volumes.
Ultimately, the cost of delivery is dependent on the method of production.
For example, greater transport distances required for centralized hydrogen
production can significantly increase the delivery costs.
"In contrast, distributed production at the point of use eliminates the
transportation costs but results in higher production costs because the
economies of large scale production are lost," says Murthy.
In terms of cost, electrolysis offers economical and environment friendly
method to producing hydrogen. However, currently this technique provides
only a small percentage of the world's hydrogen, most of which is supplied
to applications requiring small volumes of high purity hydrogen.
Fortunately, the increased installation of refuelling stations around the
world has renewed interest in the use of electrolysers to produce hydrogen
as a fuel for automotive applications.
With huge financial backing, hydrogen is being touted as the fuel of the
future. The launch of the Clean Urban Transport for Europe (CUTE) project
in nine European cities will test hydrogen fuel cell powered buses as part
of the existing public transport fleet.
"However, a shift toward a hydrogen economy is not likely to happen
overnight and requires more concerted efforts from researchers to reduce
the cost of operating hydrogen fuel cells and to bring them on par with
that of gasoline," concludes Murthy.
Advances in Alternative Fuel Technologies in Europe surveys the leading
alternative fuel technologies in Europe. In addition to analysing the key
drivers and challenges facing hydrogen, bio fuels, methanol and natural
gas, it also provides major methods of production, applications analysis
and emerging technologies for each of these fuel types. Executive summaries
and interviews are available to the press.
If you are interested in a summary of this research service providing an
introduction to Advances in Alternative Fuel Technologies in Europe, please
send an email to Magdalena Oberland, Corporate Communications at
magdalena.oberland@frost.com with the following information: full name,
company name, title, contact telephone number, email. Upon receipt of the
above information, the summary will be emailed to you.
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Advances in Alternative Fuel Technologies in Europe
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Contact:
Magdalena Oberland
Corporate Communications
P: +44 (0) 20 7915 7876
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