An Empirical Analysis of Energy Consumption and Efficiency in a Commercial On-site Hydrogen Refueling Station

Based on empirical data from a commercial on-site hydrogen refueling station, this study quantitatively analyzes the system's energy consumption structure and the root causes of its inefficiency. The analysis revealed that while the share of total energy consumption was highest in the order of production (51.0%), compression (36.3%), and dispensing (12.7%), the contribution to overall inefficiency, as measured by Specific Energy Consumption (SEC), showed a different distribution: production (35.9%), compression (28.9%), and dispensing (35.2%). Notably, the dispensing process, despite being the smallest total energy consumer, was a primary source of the system's overall energy inefficiency, revealing a significant structural problem. The inefficiency in the production process was primarily caused by performance degradation under low-load conditions, whereas the dispensing process's inefficiency stemmed from substantial standby power losses from its continuously operating chiller. These findings quantitatively demonstrate that a mismatch between operating conditions and actual demand is the most fundamental problem degrading the efficiency of the on-site hydrogen refueling station.