Analyzing hydrogen hub locations: Resources, energy, and social impact.

With the future of green energy relying on increases in green-energy production scale to support demand, placing importance on location selection for new energy production methods is going to be vital to secure a zero-carbon future. In this paper, a method called H2Locate is introduced to conduct a down selection sequence for identifying hydrogen production plant location within a defined region. Following the method, resource availability, energy availability, and social impact metrics are analyzed to understand which variables are most vital and what data must be obtained to achieve confidence in the selection of an implementation location. An illustrative example using Oklahoma as the region is produced to demonstrate the proposed method. The counties within Oklahoma are analyzed to identify potential subregions for implementing a hydrogen production plant. Excel-based software, The Probability of Hydrogen Implementation (PHI), using publicly available data regarding energy, resources, and social variables is utilized to carry out the proposed method. Considering the illustrative example with a 290 MW alkaline electrolysis facility, we find that Kay County, Johnston County, Caddo County, and the counties directly surrounding them are the most suitable locations in Oklahoma for the implementation given variables related to the desired energy, resource, and social metrics. • The H2Locate down selection method guides hydrogen production plant location selection. • Analyzes 7 hydrogen hub reports to identify key hydrogen industry variables. • Categorizes energy, feedstock, and social factor variables utilized in the H2Locate method. • An illustrative 290 MW alkaline electrolysis example in Oklahoma identified Kay, Johnston, and Caddo counties as prime locations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]