Assessment of capital requirements for alternative fuels infrastructure under the PNGV program

Conference · Thu Dec 31 04:00:00 EST 1998

OSTI ID:560806

Stork, K; Singh, M; Wang, M; Vyas, A

This paper presents an assessment of the capital requirements of using six different fuels in the vehicles with tripled fuel economy (3X vehicles) that the Partnership for a new Generation of Vehicles is currently investigating. The six fuels include two petroleum-based fuels (reformulated gasoline and low-sulfur diesel) and four alternative fuels (methanol, ethanol, dimethyl ether, and hydrogen). This study develops estimates of cumulative capital needs for establishing fuels production and distribution infrastructure to accommodate 3X vehicle fuel needs. Two levels of fuel volume-70,000 barrels per day and 1.6 million barrels per day-were established for meeting 3X-vehicle fuel demand. As expected, infrastructure capital needs for the high fuel demand level are much higher than for the low fuel demand level. Between fuel production infrastructure and distribution infrastructure, capital needs for the former far exceed those for the latter. Among the four alternative fuels, hydrogen bears the largest capital needs for production and distribution infrastructure.

• Research Organization: Argonne National Lab., IL (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Assistant Secretary for Human Resources and Administration, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-31109-ENG-38
• OSTI ID: 560806
• Report Number(s): ANL/ES/CP--94252; CONF-980112--; ON: DE97008636
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

33 ADVANCED PROPULSION SYSTEMS
CAPITALIZED COST
ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
FUEL SUBSTITUTION
VEHICLES