arXiv Machine Learning
Sep 14

Towards Sustainable Hydrogen Systems: Supply Chain Optimization with Model Predictive Control and Reinforcement Learning

This study evaluates four control strategies—rule-based, model predictive control (MPC), reinforcement learning without forecasts (RL‑NF), and reinforcement learning with forecasts (RL‑F)—for a renewable‑powered hydrogen supply chain. Using a unified, physically realistic simulation that includes electrolyzer constraints, storage dynamics, and grid limits, the authors find that MPC delivers the best economic performance by leveraging short‑term forecasts, while RL‑NF performs robustly without future information. RL‑F does not consistently outperform RL‑NF, indicating that forecast uncertainty and added state complexity can hinder forecast‑augmented learning.

By Mahammad Valiyev