An exact approach towards solving a hydrogen refuelling network design problem with pipelines

In this presentation I will present a network design model which is employed to obtain the minimum set-up and operational cost hydrogen refuelling infrastructure. The network design model takes into consideration both facility location and hydrogen supply decisions. More specifically, the model must determine where to locate hydrogen refuelling stations and how the hydrogen must be supplied to each refuelling station. For the supply of hydrogen we consider local hydrogen supply and off-site hydrogen supply. In the latter case the hydrogen must be distributed to the refuelling stations by means of tube trailers or a hydrogen pipeline. The three supply modes (localised production, tube trailer, and pipelines), result in model solutions that take on a forest-stars-points topology. More specifically, the hydrogen refuelling stations connected to the hydrogen pipeline will resemble a forest of directed trees rooted at hydrogen pipeline supply points, while the hydrogen refuelling stations supplied by tube trailers will resemble a set of stars centered around the centralised production facilities and, finally, the hydrogen refuelling stations which have localised hydrogen production will resemble a set of isolated points. The difficulty of solving the network design problem arises from the hydrogen pipeline routing decisions which will be the focus of the presentation. More specifically, I will present three different formulations and two different cutting plane.