A combined energy system consisting of fuel cell, water electrolyzer and solar technologies to produce hydrogen fuel and electricity

ABSTRACT

Today, due to increasing environmental considerations and energy demand, hydrogen fuel can be a suitable alternative energy carrier. This fuel can be produced from technologies based on fossil fuels (such as gasification and fossil fuel reforming), and/ or renewable sources (such as water electrolysis). The method of using water electrolysis technology to produce hydrogen energy along with the use of clean energy sources can be the most popular method due to the non-emission of polluting gases. In addition, such an approach can be fruitful in order to achieve development and sustainable society. The proposed energy system, which includes solar photovoltaic, solid oxide electrolyzer, dish collector, and solid oxide fuel cell, has not yet been evaluated in the literature. In other words, the components of the introduced hybrid system have new relationships and structures. The introduced energy system can produce hydrogen fuel and thermal and electrical energies. The main feature of the present paper is the use of clean solar energy to supply both the electrical and thermal energy required by the electrolyzer process to produce hydrogen fuel. The findings indicate that the introduced hybrid system can generate 217.3 kWh of electricity per day with an efficiency of approximately 50.5%. Furthermore, the energy cycle is capable of producing 4.34 kg/day of hydrogen fuel.

KEYWORDS:

• Combined energy system
• fuel cell
• water electrolyzer
• solar technologies
• hydrogen fuel and electricity

Nomenclature

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Shanxi Provincial Applied Basic Research Project No. 201701D221124, Shanxi Provincial Key R & D Project No. 201903D221025.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).