Optimizing the Design of Biomass Hydrogen Supply Chains Using Real-World Spatial Distributions
Master's thesis project
Project Description
The cost of hydrogen from biomass resources is difficult to understand without a real-world geographic context. The cost depends on the feedstock cost, size of the production facility, and the distribution of hydrogen demand. In this work, locations of rice fields are used as potential supplies of waste biomass and hydrogen demand is mapped to population data in northern California. An optimization model was developed to find the profit-maximizing configuration of prodction facility location(s), size, hydrogen delivery mode, and the hydrogen demands served by rice straw hydrogen.
Resulting Papers and Presentations
Optimizing the Design of Biomass Hydrogen Supply Chains Using Real-World Spatial Distributions: A Case Study Using California Rice Straw - Master’s thesis, includes all the gory details. March, 2007.
Optimal Design of Hydrogen Production from Agricultural Waste - Compares wheat straw hydrogen and rice straw hydrogen optimal system configurations. Presented at NHA 2007.
Optimal Infrastructure for Agricultural Waste-based Hydrogen - Presentation given at INFORMS 2006 giving a detailed description of the problem and the methodology used.
Production of Hydrogen from Waste Biomass - Presentation given to Cal/EPA Secretary's Seminar and the California Fuel Cell Partnership on separate occasions. Discusses the basics of hydrogen production from biomass and the potential for biomass hydrogen in California.
Five students graduate from STEPS Program