Research on the Concept of Hydrogen Supply Chains and Power Grids Powered by Renewable Energy Sources: A Scoping Review with the Use of Text Mining

Abstract

The key direction of political actions in the field of sustainable development of the energy sector and economy is the process of energy transformation (decarbonization) and increasing the share of renewable energy sources (RES) in the supply of primary energy. Regardless of the indisputable advantages, RES are referred to as unstable energy sources. A possible solution might be the development of the concept of hydrogen supply chains, especially the so-called green hydrogen obtained in the process of electrolysis from electricity produced from RES. The aim of the research undertaken in the article is to identify the scope of research carried out in the area of hydrogen supply chains and to link this research with the issues of the operation of electricity distribution networks powered by RES. As a result of the scoping review, and the application of the text-mining method using the IRaMuTeQ tool, which includes the analysis of the content of 12 review articles presenting the current research achievements in this field over the last three years (2016–2020), it was established that the issues related to hydrogen supply chains, including green hydrogen, are still not significantly associated with the problem of the operation of power grids. The results of the conducted research allow formulating recommendations for further research areas.

Advancing Hydrogen: A Closer Look at Implementation Factors, Current Status and Future Potential

“…Current research on hydrogen supply chains focusses on how hydrogen relates to influencing factors regarding management of electricity and distribution networks that fuel renewable energy sources (RES). The concept of designing a hydrogen supply chain that differentiates the phases of supply, production, storage, and distribution of electricity is needed [13].…”

“…Their study also aimed to assess environmental performance parameters to establish correlations between renewable energy's environmental, economic, and energy use factors. The significance of links between ecological factors and energy use has also been emphasised using Spearman's correlation to identify indicators of energy sustainability measurement [10][11][12][13][14]. Ref [15] reported that a remote generator will save almost 90% of its total costs due to the decrease in the cost of hydrogen fuel by 2030.…”

Improvement of the Mechanical Characteristics, Hydrogen Crack Resistance and Durability of Turbine Rotor Steels Welded Joints

“…The operation of many structures-particularly, steam and hydrogen turbine rotors, cooling infrastructures of powerful semiconductor devices and industrial singlecrystal growth applications [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34]45,[55][56][57][58][59][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91]110]-is accompanied by their cyclic loads, which often exceed the yield strength of the material [52,[54][55][56], based on understanding the hydrogen embrittlement of materials from the atomistic level to the continuum [100][101][102][103][123][124][125]…”

Mapping the research landscape of hydrogen supply chains: A bibliometric analysis of citations and co-citations

“…RES technologies provide an excellent opportunity to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions and reduce global warming by replacing fossil fuels. Nevertheless, regardless of the indisputable advantages, RES is an unstable energy source due to the dependence of produced energy volume on non-controllable factors such as weather and time of day (Frankowska et al, 2022). The solution to these problems is the use of hydrogen.…”

“…A critical literature analysis proves that hydrogen supply chains are a complex and demanding research area (Frankowska et al, 2022). In the theoretical achievements, separate studies have mainly focused on individual phases of the functioning of hydrogen supply chains.…”