Locational Analysis of Off-Site Hydrogen Production Facilities Considering Hydrogen Refueling Station Clusters

The Hydrogen Supply Chain (HSC) encompasses the entire process of producing, storing, transporting, and distributing hydrogen for various applications from the upstream to the downstream operations. In the transportation sector, the downstream process involves delivering hydrogen to Hydrogen Refuelling Stations (HRSs) for the end use of diverse Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles (FCEVs) types. This study aims to analyze strategic locations for off-site hydrogen production facilities to distribute hydrogen to existing HRSs, using a case study of HRSs in Germany. Specifically, the K-means algorithm with the elbow method, a popular unsupervised machine learning approach, is initially used to determine the optimal number of HRS clusters and partition them based on latitude and longitude. Next, the rectilinear minisum optimization model is applied to evaluate the strategic location of an off-site hydrogen production facility, considering locational data and population density in specific postal codes. Our results could assist policymakers for infrastructure expansion and support the development of regional or national hydrogen roadmaps relevant to HSC.