Alternative Transportation Fuels: Distribution Infrastructure for Hydrogen and Ethanol in Iowa
Publication: Journal of Infrastructure Systems
Volume 14, Issue 3
Abstract
Ethanol and hydrogen are receiving considerable attention as alternative fuels for transportation. They are being promoted to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve U.S. energy independence. This paper analyzes pipeline, rail, and truck distribution options for alternative fuels using the state of Iowa as a test case. By completely switching to E85 (85% ethanol, 15% gasoline) in Iowa, local ethanol production could replace 80% of gasoline use. Likewise, hydrogen derived from steam methane reforming at 7 facilities could replace all gasoline usage in the state. At 2006 gasoline prices, vehicles fueled with E85 would have comparable or lower fuel costs. The costs of hydrogen at the pump for both gas and liquid delivery are higher than those for gasoline and the ethanol scenarios. There are strong economies of scale in distribution paths, so a major shift to alternative fuels is needed to achieve the most cost effective distribution methods modeled in this analysis. There is considerable uncertainty in the cost estimates, particularly for the production costs of cellulosic ethanol, feedstock costs for hydrogen production, and the future price of petroleum.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Materials Use: Science, Engineering, and Society (MUSES) (Grant No. NSF0628084) and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Transportation Fellowship. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
References
Aden, A., et al. (2002). “Lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol process design and economics utilizing cocurrent dilute acid prehydrolysis and enzymatic hydrolysis for corn stover.” NREL/TP-510-32438, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colo.
Arthur D. Little, Inc. (ADL). (2002). “Guidance for transportation technologies: Fuel choice for fuel cell vehicles, ADL Phase 2 results comparison to MIT study. Revised Phase 3 deliverable to DOE.” 75111-00.
Birgisson, G., and Lavarco, W. (2004). “An effective regulatory regime for transportation of hydrogen.” Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 29(7), 771–780.
Colella, W. G., Jacobson, M. Z., and Golden, D. M. (2005). “Switching to a US hydrogen fuel cell vehicle fleet: The resultant change in emissions, energy use, and greenhouse gases.” J. Power Sources, 150, 150–181.
Cooper, J. S. (2004). “Design analysis of PEMFC bipolar plates considering stack manufacturing and environment impact.” J. Power Sources, 129(2), 152–169.
Credit Suisse First Boston. (2002). Oil and gas primer-Introduction to the Oil and Gas business, Boston.
Energy Information Administration (EIA). (2006). “Annual energy review 2005.” DOE/EIA-0384, Energy Information Administration, U.S. Dept. of Energy, Washington, D.C.
Energy Information Administration (EIA). (2007a). “Annual energy outlook.” U.S. Dept. of Energy, Washington, D.C.
Energy Information Administration (EIA). (2007b). “Official energy statistics from the U.S. government.” http://www.eia.doe.gov/ (July 15, 2007 ).
Energy Information Administration (EIA). (2007c). “State energy profiles–Iowa.” http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/state/state-energy-profiles.cfm?sid=IA (May 25, 2007 ).
Federal Highway Administration (FHwA). (2007). “Highway statistics 2005.” U.S. Dept. of Transportation, Washington, D.C., http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/ohim/hs05/index.htm (March 10, 2007 ).
Gielen, D., and Simbolotti, G. (2005). “Prospects for hydrogen and fuel cells.” International Energy Agency, Paris, France.
Granovskii, M., Dincer, I., and Rosen, M. A. (2006). “Life cycle assessment of hydrogen fuel cell and gasoline vehicles.” Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 31(3), 337–352.
Houghton, J., Weatherwax, S., and Ferrel, J. (2006). “Breaking the biological barriers to cellulosic ethanol: A joint research agenda.” DOC/SC-0095, Office of Science and Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, U.S. Dept. of Energy, Washington, D.C.
Hugo, A., Rutter, P., Pistikopoulos, S., Amorelli, A., and Zoia, G. (2005). “Hydrogen infrastructure strategic planning using multi-objective optimization.” Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 30(15), 1523–1534.
Longanbach, J., Rutkowski, M., Klett, M., White, J., Schoff, R., and Buchanan, T. (2002). “Hydrogen production facilities plant performance and cost comparisons.” NETL, Reading, Penn.
Mintz, M., Gillette, J., Elgowainy, A., Paster, M., Ringer, M., Brown, D., and Li, J. (2006). “Hydrogen delivery scenario analysis model for hydrogen distribution options.” Transportation Research Record. 1983, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 114–120.
Mohitpour, M., Solanky, H., and Vinjamuri, G. K. (2004). “Materials selection and performance criteria for hydrogen pipeline transmission.” Proc., ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping Conf., ASME, San Diego, Calif., PVP2004-2564.
Morrow, W. R., Griffin, W. M., and Matthews, H. S. (2006). “Modeling switchgrass derived cellulosic ethanol distribution in the United States.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 40(9), 2877–2886.
Muradov, N. Z., and Veziroglu, T. N. (2005). “From hydrocarbon to hydrogen-carbon to hydrogen economy.” Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 30(3), 225–237.
National Corn Growers Association (NCGA). (2007). “How much ethanol can come from corn?” http://www.ncga.com/ethanol/pdfs/2007/HowMuchEthanolCanComeFromCorn0207.pdf (March 14, 2007 ).
National Petroleum News (NPN). (2006). “2006 NPN station count.” http://www.npnweb.com/uploads/researchdata/2006/USAnnualStationCount/06-stationcount.pdf (Nov. 14, 2006 ).
National Research Council (NRC). (2004). The hydrogen economy: Opportunities, costs, barriers, and R&D needs, National Research Council, Board on Energy and Environmental Systems, Washington, D.C.
Ogden, J. M., Williams, R. H., and Larson, E. D. (2004). “Societal lifecycle costs of cars with alternative fuels/engines.” Energy Policy, 32(1), 7–27.
Plotkin, S. (2007). “Examining hydrogen transitions.” ANL-07/09, Energy Systems Div., Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Ill.
Rabinow, R. A. (2004). “The liquid pipeline industry in the United State: Where it’s been, where it’s going.” http://www.aopl.org/posted/888/Final_Rabinow_print_40804.57626.pdf (July 7, 2006 ).
Renewable Fuels Association (RFA). (2005). “Cellulosic ethanol.” http://www.ethanolrfa.org/resource/cellulosic/ (June 29, 2007 ).
Renewable Fuels Association (RFA). (2006). “Ethanol industry outlook 2006.” Washington, D.C.
Renewable Fuels Association (RFA). (2007a). “Ethanol biorefinery locations.” http://www.ethanolrfa.org/industry/locations/ (Feb. 14, 2007 ).
Renewable Fuels Association (RFA). (2007b). “Ethanol industry outlook 2007.” Washington, D.C.
Reynolds, R. (2000). The current fuel ethanol industry: Transportation, marketing, distribution, and technical considerations, Downstream Alternatives, Inc., South Bend, Ind.
Schmoyer, R. L., Truett, T., and Cooper, C. (2006). “Results of the 2004 knowledge and opinions surveys for the baseline assessment of the U.S. Department of Energy hydrogen program.” Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tenn.
Shapouri, H., and Gallagher, P. (2005). “USDA’s 2002 ethanol cost of production survey.” Agricultural Economic Rep. No. 841, U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D.C.
Simbeck, D., and Chang, E. (2002). “Hydrogen supply: Cost estimate for hydrogen pathways—Scoping analysis.” NREL/SR-540-32525, SFA Pacific, Inc., Mountain View, Calif.
Spatari, S., Zhang, Y. M., and MacLean, H. L. (2005). “Life cycle assessment of switchgrass- and corn stover-derived ethanol-fueled automobiles.” Environ. Sci. Technol., 39(24), 9750–9758.
Sperling, D., and Cannon, J. (2004). The hydrogen energy transition: Moving toward the post petroleum age in transportation, Elsevier Academic Press, Burlington, Mass.
True, W. R. (2000). “Pipeline economics.” Oil & Gas J., 98(36), 68–86.
U.S. Census Bureau. (2007). “State arid county quick facts.” http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/ (July 20, 2006 ).
U.S. Dept. of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service. (2007). “Quick facts.” http://www.nass.usda.gov/QuickStats/index2.jsp (March 14, 2007 ).
U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE). (2004). “Hydrogen posture plan. An integrated research, development, and demonstration plan.” Washington, D.C.
U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE). (2006a). “Alternative fueling station locator.” http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/infrastructure/locator.html (Feb. 1, 2007 ).
U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE). (2006b). “Alternative fueling stations counts by state and fuel type.” http://www.eere.energy.gov/afdc/fuels/station_counts.html (June 28, 2007 ).
U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE). (2006c). “Hydrogen distribution and delivery infrastructure. ” DOE Hydrogen Program, U.S. Dept. of Energy, Washington, D.C.
U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE). (2006d). “Hydrogen production.” DOE Hydrogen Program, U.S. Dept. of Energy, www.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/pdfs/doe_h2_production.pdf .
U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE). (2007a). “DOE H2A analysis.” US Dept. of Energy (DOE), Washington, D.C., http://www.hydrogen.energy.gov/h2a-analysis.html .
U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE). (2007b). “DOE selects six cellulosic ethanol plants for up to $385 million in federal funding.” US DOE Press Release, February 28, 2007 , Washington, D.C.
Wooley, R., Ruth, M., Sheehan, J., Ibsen, K., Majdeski, H., and Galvez, A. (1999). “Lignocellulosic biomass to ethanol process design and economics utilizing co-current dilute acid prehydrolysis and enzymatic hydrolysis current and futuristic scenarios.” NREL/TP-580-26157, U.S. DOE National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Washington, D.C.
Yang, C., and Ogden, J. (2007). “Determining the lowest-cost hydrogen delivery mode.” Int. J. Hydrogen Energy, 32(2), 268–286.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2008 ASCE.
History
Received: Mar 1, 2007
Accepted: Jun 1, 2007
Published online: Sep 1, 2008
Published in print: Sep 2008
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.