Hydrogen Station Siting Analysis

One of the main barriers to implementing hydrogen for widespread use in automobiles is the high initial cost of infrastructure.  Efficiently allocating resources becomes of primary importance.  Complicating the issue is the fact that there is currently no consumer market for hydrogen fuel.  Conversely, fuel cell cars cannot be sold unless there are fuel stations in which to refuel them.  This dilemma is referred to as the “chicken and egg” issue. 

The scope of this research is siting and sizing stations based on regional demand assumptions.  This will be done at a variety of scales including those at the county, regional, state, and even national level.  The output from the model identifies attractive station locations and from those locations calculates a measure of consumer convenience.  Therefore, the focus will be on intelligently siting stations for consumers. Nevertheless, some scenarios will be tried in order to look at the network from a supplier’s perspective, such as siting stations along a pipeline.

Publications from this project:

Nicholas, Michael A., Joan Ogden, "Detailed Analysis of Urban Station Siting for the California Hydrogen Highway Network," Paper Proceeding of the Transportations Research Board 2006 Annual Conference, Washington D.C., November 2005.

Nicholas, Michael, Nils Johnson, "Rural Needs for Hydrogen Station Coverage," Proceeding of the National Hydrogen Association (NHA) Annual Conference, Washington, D.C., March 2005.

Nicholas, Michael A. (2004) Hydrogen Station Siting and Refueling Analysis Using Geographic Information Systems: A Case Study of Sacramento County. Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Davis, Research Report UCD-ITS-RR-04-37

Nicholas, Michael A., Susan L. Handy, Daniel Sperling (2004) Using Geographic Information Systems to Evaluate Siting and Networks of Hydrogen Stations. Transportation Research Record (1880), 126 - 134

Nicholas, Michael, Susan Handy, Daniel Sperling, "Hydrogen Refueling Network Analysis Using Geographic Information Systems," Proceeding of the National Hydrogen Association (NHA) 2004 Annual Conference, April 2004.

Presentations from this project:

Nicholas, Michael, Joan Ogden, "Detailed Analysis of Urban Station Siting for the California Hydrogen Highway Network," Poster Presentation Transportation Research Board 2006 Annual Conference, Washington, D.C., January 22 - 26, 2006.

Nicholas, Michael A., Susan Handy, Daniel Sperling, "Hydrogen Refueling Network Analysis Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS)," Presentation at the 15th National Hydrogen Association (NHA) Annual Conference, Los Angeles, CA, April 26 - 30, 2004.

Research Faculty: Joan Ogden, Christopher Yang
Graduate Student Researcher: Michael Nicholas
Funding: Hydrogen Pathways Program