HyPro: A Financial Tool for Simulating Hydrogen Infrastructure Development

Brian D. James, Directed Technologies, Inc.
Peter O. Schmidt, Directed Technologies, Inc.
Julie Perez, Directed Technologies, Inc.

Document Type Article

For United States Department of Energy Contract # DE-FG36-05GO15019 Final Report

Abstract

This report summarizes an analysis of the options and trade-offs for the establishment of the hydrogen production infrastructure necessary for a complete transition to hydrogen fuel cell vehicles by the year 2050. The primary tool used for the analysis is a custom created MatLab simulation tool entitled HyPro (short for Hydrogen Production). This report describes both the calculation methodology of HyPro and the assumptions and results of the baseline analysis and its many corollary cases. This study was made possible with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
The report and supporting primary analyses were overseen by Fred Joseck of the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Hydrogen, Fuel Cells & Infrastructure Technologies Program who provided leadership and invaluable contributions to the analysis. An Advisory Board was also established for the project to provide industry oversight and direction. The authors thank the following members for their contributions: Graham Moore & Bhaskar Balasubramanian of Chevron Technology Ventures, Mike Miller of Teledyne Energy Systems, Sandy Thomas of H2Gen Innovations Inc., Rajat Sen of Sentech, Inc., Ira Kuhn Jr. of Directed Technologies Inc., and Ed Kiczek, Air Products and Chemicals Inc.
Additionally, many other groups contributed to the project by providing data, reviewing assumptions, or offering insights into future facility build-out pathways and methods of analysis. The HyPro model could not have been constructed had we not been able to take advantage of the excellent analytical modeling done by other researchers, especially the H2A Models which formed the backbone of the HyPro approach as well as the source of most input data. Work done by Joan Ogden and her team at UC Davis merit particular note, for their overall insight into the future hydrogen transition as well as the UC Davis Techno-economic models of carbon dioxide compression, storage and transport, and the UC Davis Pipeline models. We thank Sig Gronich (U.S. DOE), Mark Paster (U.S. DOE), Amgad Elgowainy (Tennessee State University), Keith Parks (NREL), Matt Ringer (NREL), Mark Ruth (NREL), Paul Leiby (ORNL), and Joan Ogden (UC Davis) for their thoughtful insight and suggestions throughout this study. We are also grateful to the Fuel Pathways Integration Technology Team (FPITT), the Hydrogen Transition Team and the H2A Delivery Team who tirelessly provided potential transition scenarios for evaluation.