Process-level optimization and cross-unit heat integration of a centralized methanol-to-hydrogen pipeline supply network

Centralized methanol reforming coupled with regional hydrogen pipelines is a potential hydrogen supply pathway, yet interactions among reforming, pressure allocation, pipeline hydraulics, and heat recovery remain poorly quantified. We develop a process-resolved thermo-economic model of reforming, purification, multistage compression, real-gas pipeline transport, and 450-bar terminal compression. A genetic algorithm incorporating pinch-based heat integration minimizes LCOH. For a six-station network supplying 12,000 kg/d, the minimum LCOH is 3.234 $/kg at a reforming temperature of 551 K, a steam-to-carbon ratio of 1.0, a pipeline inlet pressure of 100 bar, and an average hydrogen velocity of 3.8 m/s. Against the baseline, cross-unit heat integration raises the energy and exergy efficiencies of the production–primary-compression subsystem by 5.08 and 4.44 percentage points and reduces specific methanol consumption, direct CO 2 emission intensity, and hydrogen production cost by 5.8%, 5.7%, and 5.2%, respectively, with negligible change in capital investment. This supports joint heat-recovery and compression optimization.