Developing Sustainable, Safer and Integrated Green H2 Supply Chains for Qatar’s Industrial,Transportation and Shipping Sector

Hydrogen (H₂) can play a significant role in the global energy mix (IEA, 2019). Hydrogen based economy can be a great opportunity for a country like Qatar to decarbonize its multiple sectors including transportation, shipping, global energy markets and industrial sectors. Qatar has the industrial portfolio, has access to the resources, the commitment and the vision to become the center of the hydrogen supply chain network (HSCN). It will provide a great opportunity for the country to decarbonize its energy and industry sector, greatly reduce its Greenhouse gas emission, and improving its air quality. The use of green or blue H₂ for the production of value-added products in Qatar will contribute greatly to growing Qatar's industrial portfolio, an added economic value to the State of Qatar. According to the Hydrogen Council, a United Nations entity under the World Economic Forum, Hydrogen is projected to contribute greatly to the transportation sector (around 150 MTPA), industrial sector (around 110 MTPA), followed by power generation (around 140 MTPA) and others (Hydrogen Council, 2017). Hence, large scale production of H₂from cleaner sources is essential to meet the rising demand for H₂ in transportation and all sectors.

However, there are still some barriers to the realization of a hydrogen-based economy, which includes large scale hydrogen production cost, infrastructure investments, bulk storage, transport & distribution, safety consideration, and matching supply-demand uncertainties (Kazi et al., 2020). This work highlights how the aforementioned challenges can be handled strategically through a multi-sector industrial-urban symbiosis for the hydrogen supply chain implementation. Such symbiosis can enhance the mutual relationship between diverse industries and urban planning by exploring varied scopes of multi-purpose hydrogen usage (i.e., clean energy source as a safer carrier, industrial feedstock and intermittent products, vehicle and shipping fuel, international energy trading, etc.) both in local and international markets. It enables individual entities and businesses to participate in the physical exchange of materials, by-products, energy, and water, with strategic advantages for all participants. Besides, waste/by-product exchanges, several different kinds of synergies are also possible, such as the sharing of resources and shared facilities.

This study focuses on the development of a strategic framework for the design of a hydrogen supply chain network (HSCN) mainly investigating the potential of industrial decarbonization and multi-sectors integration (i.e., transportation, energy, shipping) via green hydrogen economy. The problem was formulated as a mixed integer linear programming (MILP) and solved in GAMS/ IBM ILOG CPLEX 30.3.0 solver. The applicability of the developed model was demonstrated using a base case Eco-industrial city consisting of 10 diverse industrial portfolios targeting decarbonization by 5%. The solution was able to find the optimal HSCN from the probable superstructure along with the optimal sizing of green hydrogen production (453.03 MM kg/y), optimal water sources, optimal sinks and the optimal amount of byproducts generation. Furthermore, the multi-purpose model can accomplish detailed techno-economic-environmental analysis for variable scenarios (e.g., variation in decarbonization target, liquid hydrogen demand, hydrogen production cost, earnings from byproducts) based on net present value. The concept and the formulation presented in this manuscript will act as the building block for future complex supply chain problems such as crossover of the multi-sector supply chains, the impact of time-varying and multiple storages to manage real-time supply chain disruption, varying cost of unit hydrogen production to accommodate the rapid advancement of technology, etc.

References

Hydrogen Council. (2017). Hydrogen scaling up. https://hydrogencouncil.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Hydrogen-scaling-up-Hydrogen-Council.pdf.

IEA. (2019). World Energy Outlook 2019. Flagship report, https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2019.

Kazi, M.-K., Eljack, F., El-Halwagi, M. M., & Haouari, M. (2020). Green hydrogen for industrial sector decarbonization: Costs and impacts on hydrogen economy in qatar. Computers & Chemical Engineering, 107144.