The Influence of the Hydrogen Supply Modes on a Hydrogen Refueling Station

Setting up and operating a hydrogen refueling station is a critical part of current drive for fuel cell vehicles. In setting up a hydrogen refueling station (HRS), the investor concerns of the capacity of HRS, the quality of hydrogen, the capital requirement of the station and the modes of hydrogen supply; interestingly, the supply modes of hydrogen further influences the safety of the station, the cost of hydrogen, the energy consumption of supply and the area of hydrogen supply section in a station. Hydrogen can be supplied to a HRS by the procurement of the merchant hydrogen from a central source with the central hydrogen supply mode (CHSM) or by an onsite production of hydrogen in the distributed hydrogen supply mode (DHSM). In this presentation, the above factors are evaluated with respect to these two supply modes of hydrogen. It is concluded that the lower hydrogen cost and the smaller site area as well as the safer aspect of the public concern of safety can be realized with the choice of the distributed hydrogen supply mode by an onsite hydrogen production from methanol.