Multi-objective optimization design of hydrogen infrastructures simultaneously considering economic cost, safety and CO2 emission

Recently increasing attention has been given to a hydrogen infrastructure (HI) including producing, transporting, and delivering H-2, the next generation alternative renewable energy source to users. This paper is concerned with designing the HI considering multiple perspectives of economic cost efficiency, safety and low CO2 emission simultaneously. An optimization modeling approach is thus proposed to address such multiple objectives of cost efficiency of H-2 supply, safety guarantee and cost efficiency of CO2 mitigation in the HI design. The proposed model employs fuzzy multiple objective programming to compute a compromising solution among multiple objectives. A case study of the future HI in Korea is presented to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed model with some comments. The proposed modeling work can be further utilized for developing systematic decision-making tools for policy makers to determine investment strategies for developing HIs. (C) 2013 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.