GIS-based sites GIS-based sites selection methodology for efficient hydrogen fuel deployment methodology for efficient hydrogen fuel deployment

Abstract

Hydrogen is an energy carrier that can transform our fossil-fuel dependent economy into a hydrogen economy, which can provide an emissions-free transportation fuel. The integration of hydrogen into the transportation sector as fuel can help the country achieves many goals. This study focuses on utilizing the Multi-Criteria Analysis (MCA) ,fuzzy logic and AHP method within a Geographic Information Systems (GIS) environment to locate optimum areas for hydrogen production projects in the Ouargla region from 2018 to 2048. The study also used the network analysis tool to reach the number of hydrogen stations required according to the consumer requirement. Seven different criteria have been selected and weighted to represent the favourite conditions for hydrogen production. The attained suitability model represents the optimum locations for hydrogen production in Ouargla scale. It has been found that the entire Ouargla territories is almost suitable for solar hydrogen production in 2048 with varying suitability index. 16.5% of the total study area was very strongly suitable to the hydrogen production and only 7% not suitable. The integration of fuzzy sets, the Multi-Criteria Analysis and AHP methods with GIS provides a powerful and precise combination for analyzing the suitability of land for a specific project.