Hydrogen station location analysis and optimization: Advanced models and behavioral evidence

This chapter reviews and synthesizes three key branches of research that are essential to modeling and planning a network of hydrogen refueling stations (HRSs) for light-duty fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). First, we review social and behavioral data and research underlying early adoption, travel, and refueling tendencies, which have evolved from studies of gasoline-vehicle drivers and stated preference surveys to revealed preference studies based on behavior and choices of actual FCEV owners. Second, we discuss some of the most prominent geographic information system (GIS) models and tools for analyzing where to locate HRSs, including several that are used to guide placement of stations in California, Japan, and Germany. Third, we review operations research (OR) models for combinatorial optimization of a network of HRSs, which are classified by how demand is represented geographically by nodes, arcs, origin-destination flows, and trip chains or tours. A fundamental idea behind this chapter is that different models require different types of data that represent the demand or need for refueling, which in turn implies certain types of underlying consumer usage of stations and station service of consumers. After a brief discussion of how GIS and OR methods can be integrated to capitalize on the strengths of each method, the chapter concludes with a conceptual flowchart for modeling HRS locations, recommendations for modeling, and future directions of research.