The importance of economies of scale, transport costs and demand patterns in optimising hydrogen fuelling infrastructure: An exploration with SHIPMod (Spatial hydrogen infrastructure planning model)

Abstract

Hydrogen is widely recognised as an important option for future road transportation, but a widespread infrastructure must be developed if the potential for hydrogen is to be achieved. This paper and related appendices which can be downloaded as Supplementary material present a mixed-integer linear programming model (called SHIPMod) that optimises a hydrogen supply chains for scenarios of hydrogen fuel demand in the UK, including the spatial arrangement of carbon capture and storage infrastructure. In addition to presenting a number of improvements on past practice in the literature, the paper focuses attention on the importance of assumptions regarding hydrogen demand. The paper draws on socio-economic data to develop a spatially detailed scenario of possible hydrogen demand. The paper then shows that assumptions about the level and spatial dispersion of hydrogen demand have a significant impact on costs and on the choice of hydrogen production technologies and distribution mechanisms.