Environmental and techno-economic viability of using hydrogen in the vehicle sector for a rapid energy transition in Argentina.

Argentina has a wide availability of renewable resources, which provides important advantages for the hydrogen vector incorporation. The province of Córdoba is an excellent model case for the study of the rapid incorporation of hydrogen as fuel, to replace 20% V/V of natural gas consumed in vehicular use. This does not involve major changes in infrastructure or modifications to the vehicles. This paper computes and analyzes the levelized cost of hydrogen with the emissions associated for each part of the complete hydrogen supply chain. Two different production sources were used: renewable energies sources and the Argentine electrical grid; and two production pathways: in situ and centralized production. Comparing the same volume of proposed hydrogen compressed natural gas and current CNG, a cost decrease in the majority of the scenarios and a CO 2 eq emission reduction ranging from 19.5 to 8.2% are achieved, even if the hydrogen is produced using the carbon-intensive grid electricity. • The Production of hydrogen to replace part of the CNG used in vehicles is proposed. • Levelized cost of hydrogen and the emissions associated was assessed. • The study includes the entire supply chain from production to the filling station. • The use of HCNG results in a reduction of emissions in all the studied scenarios. • The new fuel is economically favorable, becoming relevant for rapid energy transition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]