It is necessary to reduce hydrogen consumption to meet increasingly strict environmental and product-quality regulations for refinery plants. In this paper, the concentration potential concepts proposed for design of water-using networks are extended to synthesis of hydrogen networks with multiple contaminants. In the design procedure, the precedence of processes is determined by the values of concentration potential of demands. The usage of complementary source pair(s) to reduce utility consumption is investigated. Three case studies are presented to illustrate the effectiveness of the method. It is shown that the design procedure has clear engineering meaning. (C) 2015 The Chemical Industry and Engineering Society of China, and Chemical Industry Press. All rights reserved.