Deployment of a hydrogen supply chain by multi-objective/multi-period optimisation at regional and national scales

This study focuses on the development of a methodological framework for the design of a five-echelon hydrogen supply chain (HSC) (energy source, production, storage, transportation and fuelling station) considering the geographic level of implementation. The formulation based on mixed integer linear programming involves a multi-criteria approach where three objectives have to be optimised simultaneously, i.e., cost, global warming potential and safety risk. The objective is twofold: first, to test the robustness of the method proposed in De-Leon (2014) from a regional to a national geographic scale and, secondly, to examine the consistency of the results. A new phase of data collection and demand scenarios are performed to be adapted to the French case based on the analysis of roadmaps. In this case study, the ArcGIS® spatial tool is used to locate the supply chain elements before and after optimisation. The multi-objective optimisation approach by the ɛ-constraint method is applied, analysed and discussed. Finally, a comparison between the results of different geographic scale cases is carried out.