Whole System Impacts of Decarbonising Transport with Hydrogen: A Swedish Case Study

This study aims to carry out a techno-economic analysis of different hydrogen supply chain designs coupled with the Swedish electricity system to study the inter-dependencies between them. Both the hydrogen supply chain designs and the electricity system were parameterized with data for 2030. The supply chain designs comprehend centralised production, decentralised production, a combination of both, and with/without seasonal variation in hydrogen demand. The supply chain design is modelled to minimize the overall cost while meeting the hydrogen demands. The outputs of the supply chain model include the hydrogen refuelling stations’ locations, the electrolyser’s locations and their respective sizes as well as the operational schedule. The electricity system model shows that the average electricity prices in Sweden for zones SE1, SE2, SE3 and SE4 will be 4.28, 1.88, 8.21, and 8.19 €/MWh respectively. The electricity is mainly generated from wind and hydropower (around 42% each), followed by nuclear (14%), solar (2%) and then bio-energy (0.3%). In addition, the hydrogen supply chain design that leads to a lower overall cost is the decentralised design, with a cost of 1.48 and 1.68 €/kgH2 in scenarios without and with seasonal variation respectively. The seasonal variation in hydrogen demand increases the cost of hydrogen, regardless of the supply chain design.