Optimized Configuration and Operating Plan for Hydrogen Refueling Station with On-Site Electrolytic Production

Abstract

Hydrogen refueling stations (HRSs) are critical for the popularity of hydrogen vehicles (fuel cell electric vehicles—FCEVs). However, due to high installation investment and operating costs, the proliferation of HRSs is difficult. This paper studies HRSs with on-site electrolytic production and hydrogen storage devices and proposes an optimization method to minimize the total costs including both installation investment and operating costs (OPT-ISL method). Moreover, to acquire the optimization constraints of hydrogen demand, this paper creatively develops a refueling behavior simulation method for different kinds of FCEVs and proposes a hydrogen-demand estimation model to forecast the demand with hourly intervals for HRS. The Jensen–Shannon divergence is applied to verify the accuracy of the hydrogen-demand estimation. The result: 0.029 is much smaller than that of the estimation method in reference. Based on the estimation results and peak-valley prices of electricity from the grid, a daily hydrogen generation plan is obtained, as well as the optimal capacities of electrolyzers and storage devices. As for the whole costs, compared with previous configuration methods that only consider investment costs or operating costs, the proposed OPT-ISL method has the least, 8.1 and 10.5% less, respectively. Moreover, the proposed OPT-ISL method shortens the break-even time for HRS from 11.1 years to 7.8 years, a decrease of 29.7%, so that the HRS could recover its costs in less time.

Optimized Operation Plan for Hydrogen Refueling Station with On-Site Electrolytic Production

“…For scenario 1, the daily hydrogen energy demand is about 1832 kg, and, according to the tariff curve [12], the electrolyzer operates at maximum power during the low-price period (11:00~13:00 and 22:00~8:00) to meet the whole day's hydrogen energy demand. the average operating power of the electrolyzer is therefore 10,602 kW.…”

“…Ref. [12] proposes an estimation method for hydrogen demand, according to the simulation of FCEVs' driving behavior, verifying the validity of the estimation method.…”

“…Ref. [12] promotes a hydrogen estimation method based on residents' behavior and the vehicles for the hydrogen refueling service.…”

“…The inequality constraints considered in this model are mostly range constraints, including a range constraint on electrolyzer power, a range constraint on hydrogen storage tank capacity, and a range constraint on exchanging power with the grid, which are shown in Equation (12).…”

“…The real-time electricity prices over the course of one day are from the Illinois Power Company [14] and are shown in Table 2. The price of electricity is referenced from the literature [12], where the lowest price is 2.2 cents/kWh and the highest price is 5.6 cents/kWh. The electricity price set in this example is shown in Table 2.…”