The Role of Water Networks in Hydrogen and Energy Planning: A New Modeling and Simulation Approach

To achieve decarbonization, hydrogen as energy carrier is presented as a promising alternative. Since different countries are planning a major introduction of hydrogen technologies, it becomes vital to evaluate the effects and optimal ways of introducing hydrogen technologies taking into consideration the domains related to different stakeholders. Electrolysis in one of the main hydrogen production techniques that are expected to increase significantly in the future, and it requires water and electric power as feedstock. To evaluate whether energy models should include water dynamics in addition to energy domains in the evaluation of hydrogen production by electrolysis, two case studies are developed to determine the maximum hydrogen production capacity in Toronto: one considering water dynamics and one without considering water dynamics. The results show that there are significant differences in the optimized model outputs, where the case without water dynamics says that 183,718 kg more of hydrogen can be produced. The results from case 1 are considered unfeasible, as the water demand of the hydrogen plant exceeds the capacity of the water plant supplying the feedstock. It is concluded that energy models could add vital information by taking into account water dynamics along with the energy system when evaluating the inclusion of hydrogen technologies such as electrolysis, which will inevitably impact the water demand of the region in which they are located.