Design of a future hydrogen supply chain: A multi period model for Turkey

There is no doubt that energy will have one of highest priorities in agendas of strategic plans of countries. Since fossil fuels are running out and carbon emissions are more important than ever, researchers seek alternative clean and efficient energy sources. One of the best alternatives is hydrogen. The systems in which hydrogen flows from its production to end users are called hydrogen supply chains (HSC). Since hydrogen is not in active use, its HSC infrastructure is not complete and should be planned very carefully. We study the design of HSC of Turkey to meet the hydrogen demand of the period between 2021 and 2050. Our aim is to minimize total cost of the HSC while meeting the demand of the transportation sector. We address the problem by using a mixed integer programming (MIP) model and derive several insights for the future HSC. The results show that while decentralization (being able to fulfill the demand from local production facilities) is 12% in the first period, this rate raises up to 48% by the end of the planning horizon. Analysis also reveal that almost all grids do not produce and import hydrogen simultaneously, i.e., they either produce or import hydrogen. The results are robust in the sense that solutions of different optimality gaps have minor differences in terms of established facilities.