Southern California has been proposed as a likely site for developing a hydrogen refueling infrastructure. In this paper, we apply the UC Davis Hydrogen Infrastructure Transition (HIT) model [Lin et al. 2006] to identify optimized strategies for building up a regional hydrogen infrastructure in Southern California considering both spatial and temporal factors. GIS-based data are used to model the location and magnitude of hydrogen demand over time. Refueling stations are sited based on the location of demand, and minimizing consumer travel time. We use engineering/economic models to describe a variety of possible hydrogen supply options. Both onsite and central production technologies including biomass gasification, coal gasification, natural gas reforming, and water electrolysis are investigated. For central production routes, several delivery modes are analyzed including liquid and compressed gas trucks, and gas pipelines. These technologies compete with each other to meet an exogenously specified hydrogen demand over time at lowest cost. At each time step over a specified transition period, the HIT model uses a dynamic programming algorithm to select the best strategy for building the infrastructure. Alternative scenarios are included to study the effect of hydrogen market growth rate, technology improvement, carbon tax, renewable fuels policy, electricity decarbonization, and natural gas price.

References

1. Lin, David Z., Joan Ogden, Yueyue Fan and Dan Sperling (2006). The Hydrogen Infrastructure Transition (HIT) Model---Case Study in Beijing. proceedings of the National Hydrogen Association conference, Long Beach, California