Development of a computational tool to assess the hydrogen demand-supply ratio within hydrogen valley environment.

Hydrogen valleys are considered as regional ecosystems that link hydrogen production, transportation, and various end uses such as mobility or industrial feedstock. In the context of developing a large hydrogen economy, many barriers are identified across the hydrogen value chain, starting from the availability of renewable sources to the hydrogen enduse or distribution. Several studies in literature identify issues including policy and regulatory uncertainty, technological and commercial risk, production costs, lack of infrastructure, distribution and storage constraints, and lack of market structure. In this context, the distribution and transportation of hydrogen pose challenges, with efficiency losses of when converting it from a gas to a liquid form . Additionally, the costs for end users can invrease for gaseous hydrogen, depending on the transported quantity and travel distance. The North Adriatic Hydrogen Valley (NAHV) project, started in September 2023 and funded also by the Horizon Europe scheme, is a transnational initiative encompassing the Friuli Venezia Giulia region in Italy, Croatia and Slovenia. The project aims to developing 17 pilot projects distributed across the three territories with the goal of an annual green hydrogen production of at least 5000 tons per year. Considering the presence of pilot plants within the NAHV, a management system that consider the variability in hydrogen production and consumption can play a crucial role in establishing a robust and optimized distribution system. The project aims to be a starting point for the development of a more extensive hydrogen ecosystem in the three territories. In addition, potential import and export of hydrogen could be consider in the future, thanks also to the strategic position of the three countries in Eastern Europe and with the easy access to ship trade channels. The establishment of hydrogen optimized distribution and supply system is essential to ensure a suitable economic alignment between hydrogen suppliers and consumers. Even more, in a long-term prospective, this will be necessary for considering the entering of other new hydrogen suppliers and end-users and to allow the effective and viable development of a more extensive hydrogen-based economy. To contribute to this framework this work propose the development of an advanced computational tool able to optimally manage the relationship between hydrogen supply and demand, considering the available hydrogen production, distribution and use technologies and their optimal integration in a hydrogen ecosystem.