Modeling of the behavior of H2 vehicle users. A bilevel model for the location of hydrogen refueling stations

Abstract

The use of Alternative Fuel Vehicles (AFV) as the Fuel Cell Vehicles (FCV), to replace vehicles powered by internal combustion engines, are a clear alternative of road transport that may provide, in the long term, security in energy supply, reduction in GHG emissions and improvement of air quality in cities. There are six areas which should be addressed in order to guarantee market penetration of environmentally friendly cars: (a) purchase price, (b) running costs, (c) availability of refueling stations, (d) vehicle range before refueling, (e) refueling time and, (f) CO2 emissions per kilometer. Location models are intended to accelerate the market penetration of FCV, making efficient decisions about infrastructure design. Infrastructure (supply) leads to demand. But in order for the infrastructure to be economically viable, there must already exist a given level of demand. In this work, we describe one part of the bilevel developed model, simulating the behavior of H2 vehicle users. We use a discrete choice model to represent how users acquire FCV during the study period. The hierarchic nested logit model chosen for this study has been widely used in the field of transport. The process of choosing an FCV is the next. At the higher level a user chooses to purchase a conventional vehicle (alternative b) or an AFV (alternative a). At the lower level AFV users choose the type of fuel.