Multi-period optimization of hydrogen supply chain utilizing natural gas pipelines and byproduct hydrogen

Establishing hydrogen infrastructure is essential for achieving a hydrogen economy in the future. However, the levelized cost of hydrogen is expensive in the early market due to the absence of infrastructure. In the present study, our aim was to minimize the capital and operating costs of the hydrogen supply chain (HSC) using multi period mixed-integer linear programming. The proposed HSC includes existing infrastructure for byproduct hydrogen and natural gas (NG) pipelines. We determined the economic benefits of utilizing NG pipelines and byproduct hydrogen and how existing infrastructure outperformed other technologies for the optimization of the HSC. Compared to the non-utilization scenario, the average levelized costs of hydrogen decreased by 0.93, 1.40, and 2.03 $/kg-H-2 if byproduct hydrogen, NG pipelines, or both were available, respectively, in the HSC. The optimal HSC networks indicate that NG pipelines and byproduct hydrogen have synergetic effects on reducing the total costs owing to the decentralization of production facilities.