Liquid hydrogen supply for aviation: Impact of combined on-site production and external hydrogen procurement

This paper examines strategies for supplying airports with liquid hydrogen, focusing on the integration of on-site production and external procurement of gaseous hydrogen.Previous studies have largely optimized airport liquid hydrogen supply chains as dedicated energy systems. They have demonstrated that the availability of renewable resources is the predominant cost driver and that on-site production is advantageous in the initial stages of deployment. However, under conditions of limited renewable resources, imports may become the more cost-effective option. Nevertheless, explicit coupling to gaseous hydrogen markets, dynamic price developments, and large-scale hybrid (mixed) supply pathways remain insufficiently addressed. To fill this gap, we develop and apply a mixed-integer linear optimization framework that combines dedicated liquid hydrogen infrastructure with the option to purchase gaseous hydrogen from external markets. In addition, we perform scenario and marginal cost analyses for constant and time-varying gaseous hydrogen price levels and different airport locations.The results show that combined on-site production and external hydrogen procurement consistently reduce liquid hydrogen supply costs compared to pure local production or pure external purchase. Pure external procurement is only economically viable at very low gaseous hydrogen prices below 0.7 USD/kg, while pure on-site production involves high local capital expenditures. Diversified supply strategies offer attractive risk-cost trade-offs and can improve the cost efficiency and resilience of liquid hydrogen supply for aviation.