Revisiting competitiveness of hydrogen and algae biodiesel

Abstract

There is a shared belief across latest literature that hydrogen and algae biodiesel are promising substitutes for fossil fuels. However, hydrogen infrastructure for everyday mobility is still in its early stage from a global perspective and there is no algae biodiesel refinery in operation. Despite all this, recent geopolitical developments have caused a tipping point to be reached in the EU and hydrogen mobility has become cheaper (7 euro/100 km) than conventional fossil fuels (15.6 euro/100 km) for the first time. In many other countries the breaking point is also approaching and recent methods in waste refining could make hydrogen production even cheaper (5.4 euro/100 km). Switching to algae biodiesel is less technically challenging for the industry. Nevertheless, technological barriers in scaling up commercial-scale algae production make the hypothetical price of algae biodiesel far from price-competitive (292 euro/100 km). At the present state of knowledge it is recommended to refine algae for non-energy purposes.