Abstract
The rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (HFCVs), combined with global efforts to reduce carbon emissions, has accelerated the development of EV charging and hydrogen refueling stations. In response to this demand, this paper introduces the concept of Multi-Functional Charging Station (MFCS) that integrates power generation, EV charging, battery swapping, and hydrogen refueling. A comprehensive operational model is developed for the MFCS that couples electricity and hydrogen conversion and storage technologies to enhance infrastructure utilization and improve overall system efficiency. The model also considers multiple revenue streams, including participation in energy and ancillary markets. To validate the effectiveness of the proposed model and evaluate its performance, a series of numerical experiments are conducted with different charger numbers, different electricity purchase limits, and different charger allocations. Numerical results demonstrate that shared charger configurations can lead to 8.11 % improvement in operational profit by improving resource utilization and reducing the number of depleted batteries at the end of operations compared to allocated charger setups. By varying the number of chargers, sensitivity analysis identifies diminishing marginal returns beyond about 45 chargers, suggesting it as an optimal sizing point under current settings. The integration of electricity and hydrogen conversion is also explored under scenarios with limited external electricity purchases. These findings indicate that optimizing charger allocation and energy management can significantly enhance station productivity and profitability, ultimately supporting the broader adoption of electrified and hydrogen-based transportation solutions.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 101998 |
| Journal | Sustainable Energy, Grids and Networks |
| Volume | 44 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2025 |
Funding
This work was partially supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) under the project (#DE-AR0001780) titled “A Cognitive Freight Transportation Digital Twin for Resilience and Emission Control Through Optimizing Intermodal Logistics". This manuscript has been authored in part by UT-Battelle LLC under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http//www.energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan )
Keywords
- Charging station
- Electric vehicles
- Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles
- Intermodal transport
- Renewable energy