Towards Sustainable Transport: Techno-Economic Analysis of Investing in Hydrogen Buses in Public Transport in the Selected City of Poland

Abstract

The production, storage, and use of hydrogen for energy purposes will become increasingly important during the energy transition. One way to use hydrogen is to apply it to power vehicles. This green technological solution affects low-emissions transport, which is beneficial and important, especially in cities. The authors of this article analyzed the use of hydrogen production infrastructure for bus propulsion in the city of Katowice (Poland). The methods, used in the study, included a greedy algorithm and cost methods, which were applied for the selection of vehicles and identification of the infrastructure for the production, storage and refueling of hydrogen, as well as to conduct the economic analysis during this term. The article presented the complexity of the techno-economic analysis of the infrastructure and its installation. The key element was the selection of the number of vehicles to the hydrogen production possibilities of an electrolyser and capabilities of the storage and charging infrastructure.