Part 4: Hydrogen Basic Facts: USA Ethanol subsidy rate (pre-2012) -SH billion\'y
ID: 3196357 • Letter: P
Question
Part 4: Hydrogen Basic Facts: USA Ethanol subsidy rate (pre-2012) -SH billion'year Cost of current Hydrogen Fuel cell system (at S0.45/gallon of ethanol) $7000/car. Rest of "glider" is same as any regular car Current cost of commercial hydrogen-production system cars/day; Nat. Acad. Eng- 2004). of service stations in USA 120,000 (in 2002; last census) a. The Infrastructure Hydrogen can be produced from "'reformers" that currently use Natural Gas (stripping off the carbon atom). Home units (from Honda in California) are about $5000 e main investment would be service stations. In the "chicken-and-egg" situation, one would desire that at least 25% of America's service statio ns could offer Hydrogen refueling service stations using existing pricing/technology? diverted to this Hydrogen-infrastructure program? (1) what would it cost to add full-scale hydrogen delivery to 25% of America's (2) What would be the equivalent "Years of Ethanol Subsidy" if these funds were b. Subsidize Hydrogen Fuel-cell systems (1) If a decade's (10 years) amount of pre-2012 Ethanol subsidy had instead directed toward providing "free" fuel-cells for Hydrogen-cars; how many Hydrogen cars would have been on the road by 2020? (2) If the Federal Reserve program in 2010 for "offsetting recession" ($600 billion of "cash created from thin air") had been instead put into (a) First, installing the Hydrogen-infrastructure (part "a", which you did just above), THEN, after deducting that cost, providing "free" fuel-cells for Hydrogen-cars; how many Hydrogen cars could have been put on the road? Part 5: Putting it all together True, the above suite of calculations was a biased analysis and ignores many other factors. However, based partly on what you've computed and analyzed, what conclusions and recommendations would you make for the Short-term, and for the Long-term of USA vehicle systems? And How we should make that happen?Explanation / Answer
a. )
1. The number of service stations in US = 120,000.
Cost of hydrogen-production system per service station = 1,000,000 $.
The 25% of total number of service stations in US = 120,000*25% = 120,000(25/100) = 30,000.
Thus the total cost for implementing full-scale hydrogen fuel delivery system in 25% of service stations = 30,000*1,000,000=30,000,000,000=30 billion $.
2) Ethanol subsidy per year = $8 billion.
The cost of implementing hydrogen program = $ 30 billion.
Thus the equivalent of $30 bn in 'years of ethanol subsidy' = 30/8 = 3.75 years.
Thus 3.75 years of ethanol subsidy will have to be diverted to implement hydrogen infrastructure program.
b)
1.
Cost of hydrogen fuel system per car = $7,000.
Ethanol subsidy per year = $8 billion
Total ethanol subsidy for 10 years = $80 billion = 80,000,000,000 billion.
Number of free fuels cells which can be given using $80 billion = 80,000,000,000/7,000 = 11428571.4286 ~ 11428571.
Thus 11,428,571 cars equipped with hydrogen fuel cells can be on road using ethanol subsidy worth 10 years.
2.
To set up hydrogen infrastructure we would need $30 billion. The the money left after deducting this is 600-30 = $570 bn.
Number of cars which can be put on road using $570 bn = 570,000,000,000/7,000 ~ 81,428,571
For the short term, majority of the vehicles and service stations will have to depend on subsidised ethanol as fuel for converting to hydrogen requires huge investment. But over a long term they should switch to hydrogen as fuel. Once investment is made on hydrogen the subsidy on ethanol can completely be scrapped.
This can be achieved by diverting a part of ethanol subsidy to develop hydrogen infrastructure and to provide free fuel cells to cars.