Co-Location Strategies for Cost-Effective Hydrogen Refuelling Infrastructure: A Spatial Optimisation Approach in Japan

The Japanese government plans to establish up to 1000 hydrogen refuelling stations (HRSs) to transform Japan’s transportation sector. However, the high initial capital cost remains the biggest challenge for this plan, with JPY 500 million as the estimated capital cost per station. To address this challenge, this study proposes a co-location-based strategy through integration of hydrogen and conventional petrol stations that may reduce initial capital costs and support station placement. Hyogo Prefecture is selected as the case study, and a spatial selection model is developed to identify candidate locations for future hydrogen stations. Three types of centroid-based placement are used in this study: (1) the mean coordinates-based centroids of existing petrol stations, (2) census data-based population-weighted centroids, and (3) industrial-area-based centroids. Hydrogen demand is estimated using the projected number of both passenger and commercial fuel cell vehicle (FCV) adoptions and hydrogen consumption rates. The greedy algorithm is utilised to determine station placements. Results indicate that different types of centroid-based placement affect the spatial distribution and characteristics of the selected stations, with industrial-area-based centroids favouring sites located in the vicinity of major industrial or logistics areas. Meanwhile, petrol station-based and population-weighted centroids favour sites within residential areas. The geodesic distances represent the proximity between centroids under different definitions and selected sites. The three centroid definitions provide alternative site selection processes based on spatial and demand characteristics. This study provides a screening framework for phased development of hydrogen refuelling station infrastructure and supports sustainable transport policy development in the future.