The Feasibility of Adopting A Hydrogen Powered Fleet of Vehicles

This study assessed whether a UK depot could convert a 20-truck, back to base fleet from diesel to hydrogen while meeting strict service, safety, reliability, cost, and emissions thresholds. The duty was fixed at 6,000 miles per day across two return peaks. Using published energy rates, daily hydrogen need was sized at 882 kg for typical days and 1,206 kg for stress duty; a 20% buffer for heat, clustering, and timing drift raised these to 1,058 kg and 1,447 kg. SAE J2601 limits, a two-wave queue model, and evidence on pre-cooling bottlenecks guided dispenser count, storage, and chiller sizing. Availability targets used predictive health monitoring to reach at least 97% during operating windows. Layout checks followed recognised siting rules. Three supply routes were tested: onsite PEM electrolysis, buy-in compressed or liquid hydrogen, and a hybrid with onsite baseload plus delivered peaks. Onsite gave strong control over purity and timing but exposed cost to power price and stack ageing. Buy-in lowered capital but imported delivery and price risk and still required robust station conditioning. The hybrid right-sized onsite production to about 60–70% of a hot-day load and used contracted deliveries to cover peaks and outages. The hybrid met wait targets (mean ≤10 minutes; P95 ≤20 minutes) more reliably at the study depot and sat mid-range on cost, while emissions results depended on the supply pathway and verified certificates. The study therefore recommended a hybrid baseline with firm clean-power contracts, supplier redundancy, multi-bank storage, strong pre-cooling, inline impurity monitoring, and simple queue controls throughout.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

msc

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

masters

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Wales Trinity Saint David

Year dc:date.issued

2025

Author dc:creator

• Asowata, Efehi Davidson

• TL Cerbydau modur. Awyrenneg. Astronawteg

Dc Identifier Grantnumber

UWTSD

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:repository.uwtsd.ac.uk:4043