Balancing costs, safety and CO2 emissions in the design of hydrogen supply chains

This work presents a strategy for the design of a hydrogen supply chain network for minimum daily supply costs, minimum mitigation costs of CO2, and maximum network safety. The aim is to identify the best hydrogen infrastructure pathways while taking into account local factors such as the location of the hydrogen supply and demand, and distribution between the hydrogen production location and hydrogen demand points. The proposed model is a mixed integer linear program that is solved with AIMMS. The model is solved as a multi-criterion decision making problem, where three objectives (costs, safety, and environmental impact) are balanced. A three dimensional Pareto front is created using the epsilon constraint method. Utopia point analysis is used to make trade-off decisions in the Pareto front. Compared to the current internal combustion vehicle fuel with an average cost of 0.0645 $ per km, the hydrogen cost, of 0.0762 $ per km, proofs the potential for a hydrogen economy. Implementation of decentralized hydrogen production plant based on water electrolysis may compete with coal-based dominant technology.