Patent ID: 8065243

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of optimizing operations of a hydrogen pipeline network, comprising: reading a set of input data describing a hydrogen pipeline, a plurality of hydrogen production sources configured to introduce hydrogen into the hydrogen pipeline, a plurality of hydrogen consumers configured to remove hydrogen from the pipeline, a plurality of optimization parameters to use in an optimization run, and one or more optimization run termination conditions; generating a population of solutions, wherein each solution specifies a feasible operating state for the hydrogen pipeline, the plurality of hydrogen production sources, and the plurality of hydrogen consumers, and wherein the population of solutions are generated by: generating a first group of solutions using a random process, and generating a second group of solutions, wherein the second group of solutions are generated according to one or more heuristic rules derived from past experience in operating the hydrogen pipeline network; evaluating each solution in the population of solutions to generate an evaluation score for each solution; repeatedly performing a genetic optimization process on the population of solution to evolve the population of solutions until one of the termination conditions are satisfied; selecting one of the solutions from the evolved population of solutions, wherein the selected solution has a highest evaluation score, relative to the solutions in the evolved population of solutions; and applying one or more heuristic rules to the selected solution, wherein each heuristic rule is applied to further optimize the operating state for the hydrogen pipeline specified in the selected solution.