The International oil price and hydrogen competitiveness

Abstract

Natural gas based hydrogen is expected to provide most of the hydrogen supply in the period prior to and during at least the first years of market introduction of automotive hydrogen and fuel cell technology in large scale. Due to the natural gas price dependency of the international oil price the hydrogen cost level that is required for competitiveness of hydrogen and fuel cell technology depends on the oil price. This gives rise to the question: At which oil price will natural gas based hydrogen and advanced hydrogen be competitive? The question is addressed by developing a model that links hydrogen and conventional fuels to the oil price and to related fuel efficiencies. The model results indicate that advanced hydrogen production in some respects could become competitive before natural gas based hydrogen.