Site and capacity selection for on-site production facilities in a nationwide hydrogen supply chain deployment plan

Abstract

The Republic of Korea intends to establish a nationwide hydrogen supply chain (HSC) infrastructure to promote the adoption of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles. As the hydrogen demand for mobility may be higher than the estimated production capacity of existing facilities, additional on-site hydrogen refueling stations (HRSs) are required. To address infrastructure deployment problems, a two-stage (demand and supply stages) optimization approach is proposed based on mixed-integer linear programming models. The maximal covering location and p-median models at the demand stage determine the location and chargers of the HRSs and the demand allocation to the stations. At the supply stage, the supply model determines the installation of additional on-site production facilities for the deployed HRSs and the supply allocation to the stations by minimizing the installation and transportation costs. We estimated high-resolution demand data using public sources and utilized investigated supply data from reputable institutions representing the hydrogen economy in the Republic of Korea. The proposed approach provides realistic HSC infrastructure deployment plans, satisfying over 90% of the hydrogen demand in the years 2025 and 2030. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis indicated the effects of various parameters on the deployment plan, including the demand coverage and the need for additional on-site HRSs to address potential hydrogen supply shortages.