Optimal development of alternative fuel station networks considering node capacity restrictions

• Published in: Transportation research. Part D, Transport and environment Vol. 78; p. 102189
• Main Authors: Rose, Philipp K., Nugroho, Rizqi, Gnann, Till, Plötz, Patrick, Wietschel, Martin, Reuter-Oppermann, Melanie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.01.2020
• Subjects: Alternative fuel vehicle; Capacity restriction; Fuel cell; Heavy-duty vehicles; Hydrogen refuelling network; Infrastructure; TCO; LNG; GHG; HRS; PLD; DDM; FCEV; TRL; Capacity restriction; Hydrogen refuelling network; OD; Infrastructure; HDV; Fuel cell; LDV; Alternative fuel vehicle; AF-HDV; FCH; H2; ICE; SOM; FC-HDV; BEV; OEM; ttw; Heavy-duty vehicles
• ISSN: 1361-9209; 1879-2340
• DOI: 10.1016/j.trd.2019.11.018

•Introduction of alternative fuel stations (AFS) modeling considering node capacity restrictions.•More practicable AFS infrastructure modelling considering existing real-life limitations on single AFS locations.•Application of approach to case study of a heavy-duty vehicle AFS network.•Limitations have major impact on the number of stations, utilization and portfolio variety. A potential solution to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the transport sector is the use of alternative fuel vehicles (AFV). As global GHG emission standards have been in place for passenger cars for several years, infrastructure modelling for new AFV is an established topic. However, as the regulatory focus shifts towards heavy-duty vehicles (HDV), the market diffusion of AFV-HDV will increase as will planning the relevant AFV infrastructure for HDV. Existing modelling approaches need to be adapted, because the energy demand per individual refill increases significantly for HDV and there are regulatory as well as technical limitations for alternative fuel station (AFS) capacities at the same time. While the current research takes capacity restrictions for single stations into account, capacity limits for locations (i.e. nodes) – the places where refuelling stations are built such as highway entries, exits or intersections – are not yet considered. We extend existing models in this respect and introduce an optimal development for AFS considering (station) location capacity restrictions. The proposed method is applied to a case study of a potential fuel cell heavy-duty vehicle AFS network. We find that the location capacity limit has a major impact on the number of stations required, station utilization and station portfolio variety.