The Design of By-product Hydrogen Supply Chain Considering Large-scale Storage and Chemical Plants: A Game Theory Perspective

TL;DR

This paper models a hydrogen supply chain from chemical plants to end users, incorporating storage, transportation, and market strategies using game theory to optimize and analyze the system.

Contribution

It introduces a novel supply chain model considering large-scale storage, transportation, and market interactions among chemical plants, salt caverns, and end users using cooperative and Stackelberg games.

Findings

The model identifies optimal transportation and trading strategies for stakeholders.

Simulation results provide insights into by-product hydrogen market design.

The approach enhances understanding of supply chain coordination in hydrogen markets.

Abstract

Hydrogen, an essential resource in the decarbonized economy, is commonly produced as a by-product of chemical plants. To promote the use of by-product hydrogen, this paper proposes a supply chain model among chemical plants, hydrogen-storage salt caverns, and end users, considering time-of-use (TOU) hydrogen price, coalition strategies of suppliers, and road transportation of liquefied and compressed hydrogen. The transport route planning problem among multiple chemical plants is modeled through a cooperative game, while the hydrogen market among the salt cavern and chemical plants is modeled through a Stackelberg game. The equilibrium of the supply chain model gives the transportation and trading strategies of individual stakeholders. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed method can provide useful insights on by-product hydrogen market design and analysis.