In the next 40 years, demand of hydrogen can develop to such an extent that construction of transport and distribution hydrogen pipelines can become viable because of economy of scale. To assess at what level of hydrogen demand this might happen, the cost of each competing transportation systems (pipelines versus liquid and gaseous trucks) has to be computed using optimal design methods.

The objective of this work is to build a model that can provide the main optimal features (Where? What size? When?) of a hydrogen pipeline network originating from large-scale facilities and supplying a set of GPS-located delivery points with given demands. The approach has the advantage to mix in a unified framework economic issues (estimation of capital and operational expenditures), physical features pertaining to hydrogen (hydraulics of pipelines and compressor stations), geographical constraints (location of sources and consumptions) and dynamic aspects. Hence, the model will evaluate when each pipeline section is built by comparing, at various time steps, each of the whole delivery supply chains (with upstream and downstream equipments).

Making the assumption that the starting-up of the hydrogen economy will firstly be driven by the transportation sector, the studies with the model have been carried out on urban and regional areas where delivery points are refuelling stations. The results will be presented on these cases and decision criteria will be exhibited.

To tackle such a difficult problem, several industrial and academic partners have been gathered within the research project ECOTRANSHY (sponsored by the French Research Agency).