Hydrogen & Sector-Coupled Energy Systems

Research Contents

• Techno-economic assessment: compare renewable H₂ pathways and levelized costs under weather/price variability.

• Infrastructure & siting: optimize pipelines, storage, and ports with spatial constraints and permitting limits.

• Electrolyzer–battery dispatch: co-optimize sizing and market participation for reliability and cost.

• Sector coupling & planning: integrate electricity–heat–transport for robust decarbonization roadmaps.

Hydrogen from variable renewables is a promising lever for deep decarbonization, yet practical deployment faces high levelized costs, infrastructure bottlenecks, and pronounced uncertainty from weather, price volatility, and demand profiles. System design must therefore coordinate electrolyzer technology choices, spatial siting, storage and transport options, and market participation while respecting start-up dynamics and policy constraints. We conduct techno-economic assessments that couple process-level physics with investment and dispatch models, and we study co-integration with grid-scale batteries to buffer intermittency and improve capacity factors. Scenario-based and stochastic optimization frameworks provide portfolios that remain cost-effective under severe variability, and reveal where infrastructure expansion or policy incentives deliver the highest leverage. Extending these elements to sector coupling, we link electricity, heat, and transport so that planning and operations are consistent across timescales and resilient to shocks, accelerating a carbon-neutral transition without sacrificing reliability.

Associated members: Sunwoo Kim, Hana Kim, Hae Yong Jung, Byoungyoun Lee