Optimal Allocation of Energy Sources in Hydrogen Production for Sustainable Deployment of Electric Vehicles

We analyze the use of hydrogen as a fuel for the automotive industry with the aim of decarbonizing the economy. Hydrogen is a suitable option for avoiding pollutant gas emissions, developing environmentally friendly technologies, replacing fossil fuels with clean, renewable energies, and complying with the Paris Agreement and Glasgow resolutions. In this sense, renewable energies such as wind, solar, photovoltaic, geothermal, biomass, etc. can be used to produce the necessary hydrogen to power vehicles. In this way, the entire process from hydrogen production to its consumption as fuel will be 100% clean. If we are to meet future energy demands, it is necessary to forecast the amount of hydrogen needed, taking into account the facilities currently available and new ones that will be required for its generation, storage, and distribution. This paper presents a process for optimizing hydrogen production for the automotive industry that considers the amount of hydrogen needed, the type of facilities from which it will be produced, how the different sources of production are to be combined to achieve a competitive product, and the potential environmental impacts of each energy source. It can serve as a frame of reference for the various actors in the hydropower and automotive industries so that more efficient designs can be planned for the gradual introduction of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs). The methodology implemented in this paper sets an optimization problem for minimizing energy production costs and reducing environmental impacts according to the source of energy production. The EU framework with respect to the decarbonization of the economy, the percentages of the different types of energy sources used, and the non-polluting vehicle fleet in the automotive sector will be considered.