Site selection methodology for the wind-powered hydrogen refueling station based on AHP-GIS in Adrar, Algeria

Abstract

This paper deals with site selection problems for hydrogen production plants and aims to propose a structural procedure for determining the most feasible sites. The study area is Adrar province, Algeria which has a promising wind potential. The methodology is mainly composed of two stages: the first stage is to evaluate and select the best locations for wind-powered hydrogen production using GIS and MCDM technique. the AHP is applied to weigh the criteria and compute a LSI to evaluate potential sites, and the second stage is applying different filtration constraints to select the suitable petrol stations for such hydrogen refueling station modification. The result map showed that the entire Adrar province is almost suitable for wind-powered hydrogen production with varying suitability index. The LSI model groups sites into three categories: High suitable areas, Medium suitable areas, and Low suitable. As a result, 2.95 % (12808.97 km²) of the study area has high suitability, 54.59 % (236320.16 km²) has medium suitability, 1.12 %(4842.94 km²) has low suitability and 41.34 % (178950.35 km²) of the study area is not suitable for wind hydrogen production. By applying the constraints, about 4 stations are suitable for wind-powered hydrogen refueling system retrofitting in Adrar province.