Planning sustainable hydrogen supply chain infrastructure with uncertain demand

•Minimized the total cost of the hydrogen supply network with uncertain demand.•A spatially aggregated demand model was developed to estimate the potential demand.•These models were applied to evaluate the future hydrogen for State of New Jersey.•Hydrogen cost per kg decreases over entire planning horizon.

This study introduces a multi-period optimization model taking into account the stochasticity and the effect of uncertainty in the hydrogen production, storage and usage in macro view (e.g. county level). The objective function includes minimization of total daily social cost of the hydrogen supply chain network with uncertain demand. There are several factors and key attributes, which influence consumer choice to buy a fuel cell vehicle. At the same time, consumer preference on the demand side is the most important factor in predicting changes in the auto market. A spatially aggregated demand model was developed to estimate the potential demand for fuel cell vehicles based on different household attributes such as income, education etc. These models were applied to evaluate the future hydrogen supply chain for State of New Jersey.