A Systematic Analysis of Economic and Environmental Trade-Offs in Hydrogen Supply Chains with Resilience Considerations

The global impacts of climate change have necessitated a shift in the production, distribution, and consumption of energy. To facilitate this transition in energy that will replace fossil fuels with more renewable sources, it is key to understand the role of energy storage in supply chains of the future energy mix. Due to the intermittent nature of renewable energy, hydrogen is gaining traction to store this energy and thereby plays a major role towards achieving greener energy systems. As multiple segments within the hydrogen supply chain are presently being investigated extensively to enable deployment at larger scales, there is considerable uncertainty associated with the progress of the supply chain as a whole. Furthermore, these supply chains will not only need to account for the uncertainties that come with the energy transition, but those that inherently exist for all supply chains. Accordingly, there is a need to incorporate resilience into the design and optimization of hydrogen supply chain networks that account for such uncertainties. Through this work, an optimization-based model is presented to analyze the trade-offs that exist between economic and environmental decision objectives when resilience is considered. In this manner, strategies for managing disruptions within the context of energy security and sustainable development can be developed to adapt to changing circumstances.