Model for energy conversion in renewable energy system with hydrogen storage

A dynamic model for a stand-alone renewable energy system with hydrogen storage (RESHS) is developed. In this system, surplus energy available from a photovoltaic array and a wind turbine generator is stored in the form of hydrogen, produced via an electrolyzer. When the energy production from the wind turbine and the photovoltaic array is not enough to meet the load demand, the stored hydrogen can then be converted by a fuel cell to produce electricity. In this system, batteries are used as energy buffers or for short time storage. To study the behavior of such a system, a complete model is developed by integrating individual sub-models of the fuel cell, the electrolyzer, the power conditioning units, the hydrogen storage system, and the batteries (used as an energy buffer). The sub-models are valid for transient and steady state analysis as a function of voltage, current, and temperature. A comparison between experimental measurements and simulation results is given. The model is useful for building effective algorithms for the management, control and optimization of stand-alone RESHSs.     

Real-time energy management in an off-grid smart home: Flexible demand side control with electric vehicle and green hydrogen production

A real-time energy management system for an off-grid smart home is presented in this paper. The primary energy sources for the system are wind turbine and photovoltaics, with a fuel cell serving as a supporting energy source. Surplus power is used to generate hydrogen through an electrolyzer. Data on renewable energy and load demand is gathered from a real smart home located in the Yildiz Technical University Smart Home Laboratory. The aim of the study is to reduce hydrogen consumption and effectively utilize surplus renewable energy by managing controllable loads with fuzzy logic controller, all while maintaining the user's comfort level. Load shifting and tuning are used to increase the demand supplied by renewable energy sources by 10.8% and 13.65% from wind turbines and photovoltaics, respectively. As a result, annual hydrogen consumption is reduced by 7.03%, and the average annual efficiency of the fuel cell increases by 4.6%     

Operational performance of energy storage as function of electricity prices for on-grid hybrid renewable energy system by optimized fuzzy logic controller

Realization of benefits from on-grid distributed generation based on renewable energy sources requires employment of energy storage to overcome the intermittency in power generation by such sources, while accounting for time-varying electricity prices. The objective of this study is to examine the effects of time-varying electricity prices on the performance of energy storage components for an on-grid hybrid renewable energy system (HRES) utilizing an optimized fuzzy logic controller (FLC). To achieve the objective, FLC membership functions are optimized for minimizing the operational cost of the HRES based on weekly and daily prediction of data for grid electricity price, electrical load, and environmental parameters, including wind speed, solar irradiation, and ambient temperature, using shuffled frog leap algorithm. FLC three inputs include (a) grid electricity price, (b) net power flow as the difference between energy produced and energy consumed, and (c) state of charge (SOC) of battery stack. It is confirmed that accounting for grid electricity price has considerable effects on the performance of energy storage components for operation of on-grid HRES, as the weekly and daily optimized FLCs result in less working hours for fuel cell and electrolyzer and less fluctuations in SOC of battery stack.     

Hydrogen as an energy carrier in stand-alone applications based on PV and PV–micro-hydro systems

The paper compares two different models of a hypothetical stand-alone energy system based only on renewable sources (solar irradiance and micro-hydro power) integrated with a system for the production of hydrogen (electrolyzer, compressed gas storage and proton exchange membrane fuel cell or PEMFC). The models of both systems have been designed to supply the electricity needs of a residential user in a remote area (a valley of the Alps in Italy) during a complete year of operation, without integration of traditional fossil fuel energy devices. A simulation model has been developed to analyze the energy performance of these systems. The technical feasibility and the behavior of the systems will be evaluated through the analysis of some data (e.g. the production and consumption of electricity along the year by the different components; the heat management; the production, storage and utilization of hydrogen).     

Modelization of hybrid systems with hydrogen and renewable energy oriented to electric propulsion in sailboats

This paper presents a conceptual model of a hybrid electric sailboat in which energy from electric grid is stored in batteries and energy from renewable energies (eolic, solar and hydro) is stored as hydrogen. The main objective of this model is to study the viability of electrifying traditional sailboats with internal combustion engines into hybrid systems with batteries and fuel cell. The most important advantage of this design is the possibility to reduce up to zero emissions of traditional sailboat. Conversion of renewable energy to hydrogen is performed through an electrolyzer and post conversion to energy is carried out by a fuel cell. The fuel cell with the batteries forms the hybrid system (batteries-fuel cell) for propulsion electrical energy supply. In order to model the boat dynamic and energy systems, modular mathematical models were developed under Matlab^®-Simulink^®, using a fixed-step solver for the simulation of global model. A simulated logic controller manages the global model. In this paper, many models have been used: some of them are based in literature models and others were developed from experimental data. A control strategy has also been developed to manage energy flows and then it has been embedded to Matlab^® language. The global model permits test the performance of the sailboat.     

Monitoring and control of a hydrogen production and storage system consisting of water electrolysis and metal hydrides

Renewable energy sources such as wind turbines and solar photovoltaic are energy sources that cannot generate continuous electric power. The seasonal storage of solar or wind energy in the form of hydrogen can provide the basis for a completely renewable energy system. In this way, water electrolysis is a convenient method for converting electrical energy into a chemical form. The power required for hydrogen generation can be supplied through a photovoltaic array. Hydrogen can be stored as metal hydrides and can be converted back into electricity using a fuel cell. The elements of these systems, i.e. the photovoltaic array, electrolyzer, fuel cell and hydrogen storage system in the form of metal hydrides, need a control and monitoring system for optimal operation. This work has been performed within a Research and Development contract on Hydrogen Production granted by Solar Iniciativas Tecnológicas, S.L. (SITEC), to the Politechnic University of Valencia and to the AIJU, and deals with the development of a system to control and monitor the operation parameters of an electrolyzer and a metal hydride storage system that allow to get a continuous production of hydrogen.     

Hydrogen as a battery for a rooftop household solar power generation unit

Decentralization of electrical power generation using rooftop solar units is projected to develop to not only mitigate power losses along transmission and distribution lines, but to control greenhouse gases emissions. Due to intermittency of solar energy, traditional batteries are used to store energy. However, batteries have several drawbacks such as limited lifespan, low storage capacity, uncontrolled discharge when not connected to a load and limited number of charge/discharge cycles. In this paper, the feasibility of using hydrogen as a battery is analyzed where hydrogen is produced by the extra diurnal generated electricity by a rooftop household solar power generation unit and utilized in a fuel cell system to generate the required electrical power at night. In the proposed design, two rooftop concentrated photovoltaic thermal (CPVT) systems coupled with an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) are used to generate electricity during 9.5 h per day and the extra power is utilized in an electrolyzer to produce hydrogen. Various working fluids (Isobutane, R134a, R245fa and R123) are used in the ORC system to analyze the maximum feasible power generation by this section. Under the operating conditions, the generated power by ORC as well as its efficiency are evaluated for various working fluids and the most efficient working fluid is selected. The required power for the compressor in the hydrogen storage process is calculated and the number of electrolyzer cells required for the hydrogen production system is determined. The results indicate that the hybrid CPVT-ORC system produces 2.378 kW of electricity at 160 suns. Supplying 65% of the produced electricity to an electrolyzer, 0.2606 kg of hydrogen is produced and stored for nightly use in a fuel cell system. This amount of hydrogen can generate the required electrical power at night while the efficiency of electrolyzer is more than 70%.     

Design of hybrid power-to-power systems for continuous clean PV-based energy supply

The increasing penetration of intermittent renewable sources, fostering power sector decarbonization, calls for the adoption of energy storage systems as an essential mean to improve local electricity exploitation, reducing the impact of distributed power generation on the electric grid. This work compares the use of hydrogen-based Power-to-Power systems, battery systems and hybrid hydrogen-battery systems to supply a constant 1 MW_el load with electricity locally generated by a photovoltaic plant. A techno-economic optimization model is set up that optimizes the size and annual operation of the system components (photovoltaic field, electrolyzer, hydrogen storage tanks, fuel cell and batteries) with the objective of minimizing the annual average cost of electricity, while guaranteeing an imposed share of local renewable self-generation. Results show that, with the present values of investment costs and grid electricity prices, the installation of an energy storage system is not economically attractive by itself, whereas the installation of PV panels is beneficial in terms of costs, so that the baseline optimal solution consists of a 4.2 MW_p solar field capable to self-generate 33% of the load annually. For imposed shares of self-generation above 40%, decoupling generation and consumption becomes necessary. The use of batteries is slightly less expensive than the use of hydrogen storage systems up to a 92% self-generation rate. Above this threshold, seasonal storage becomes predominant and hybrid storage becomes cheaper than batteries. The sale of excess electricity is always important to support the plant economics, and a sale price reduction sensibly impacts the results. Hydrogen storage becomes more competitive when the need for medium and long terms energy shift increases, e.g. in case of having a cap on the available PV capacity.     

Optimization of control strategies for stand-alone renewable energy systems with hydrogen storage

This paper presents a novel strategy, optimized by genetic algorithms, to control stand-alone hybrid renewable electrical systems with hydrogen storage. The strategy optimizes the control of the hybrid system minimizing the total cost throughout its lifetime. The optimized hybrid system can be composed of renewable sources (wind, PV and hydro), batteries, fuel cell, AC generator and electrolyzer. If the renewable sources produce more energy than the one required by the loads, the spare energy can be used either to charge the batteries or to produce H₂ in the electrolyzer. The control strategy optimizes how the spare energy is used. If the amount of energy demanded by the loads is higher than the one produced by the renewable sources, the control strategy determines the most economical way to meet the energy deficit. The optimization of the various system control parameters is done using genetic algorithms. This paper explains the strategy developed and shows its application to a PV–diesel–battery–hydrogen system.     

Optimal energy management system for stand-alone wind turbine/photovoltaic/hydrogen/battery hybrid system with supervisory control based on fuzzy logic

This paper presents a novel hourly energy management system (EMS) for a stand-alone hybrid renewable energy system (HRES). The HRES is composed of a wind turbine (WT) and photovoltaic (PV) solar panels as primary energy sources, and two energy storage systems (ESS), which are a hydrogen subsystem and a battery. The WT and PV panels are made to work at maximum power point, whereas the battery and the hydrogen subsystem, which is composed of fuel cell (FC), electrolyzer and hydrogen storage tank, act as support and storage system. The EMS uses a fuzzy logic control to satisfy the energy demanded by the load and maintain the state-of-charge (SOC) of the battery and the hydrogen tank level between certain target margins, while trying to optimize the utilization cost and lifetime of the ESS. Commercial available components and an expected life of the HRES of 25 years were considered in this study. Simulation results show that the proposed control meets the objectives established for the EMS of the HRES, and achieves a total cost saving of 13% over other simpler EMS based on control states presented in this paper.     

Performance of a stand-alone renewable energy system based on energy storage as hydrogen

Electrolytic hydrogen offers a promising alternative for long-term energy storage of renewable energy (RE). A stand-alone RE system based on energy storage as hydrogen has been developed and installed at the Hydrogen Research Institute, and successfully tested for autonomous operation with developed control system and power conditioning devices. The excess energy produced, with respect to the load requirement, has been sent to the electrolyzer for hydrogen production. When energy produced from the RE sources became insufficient, with respect to the load requirement, the stored hydrogen was fed to a fuel cell to produce electricity. The RE system components have substantially different voltage-current characteristics and they are integrated through power conditioning devices on a dc bus for autonomous operation by using a developed control system. The developed control system has been successfully tested for autonomous operation and energy management of the system. The experimental results clearly indicate that a stand-alone RE system based on hydrogen production is safe and reliable.     

Technico-economic analysis of off grid solar PV/Fuel cell energy system for residential community in desert region

A technico-economic analysis based on integrated modeling, simulation, and optimization approach is used in this study to design an off grid hybrid solar PV/Fuel Cell power system. The main objective is to optimize the design and develop dispatch control strategies of the standalone hybrid renewable power system to meet the desired electric load of a residential community located in a desert region. The effects of temperature and dust accumulation on the solar PV panels on the design and performance of the hybrid power system in a desert region is investigated. The goal of the proposed off-grid hybrid renewable energy system is to increase the penetration of renewable energy in the energy mix, reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel combustion, and lower the cost of energy from the power systems. Simulation, modeling, optimization and dispatch control strategies were used in this study to determine the performance and the cost of the proposed hybrid renewable power system. The simulation results show that the distributed power generation using solar PV and Fuel Cell energy systems integrated with an electrolyzer for hydrogen production and using cycle charging dispatch control strategy (the fuel cell will operate to meet the AC primary load and the surplus of electrical power is used to run the electrolyzer) offers the best performance. The hybrid power system was designed to meet the energy demand of 4500 kWh/day of the residential community (150 houses). The total power production from the distributed hybrid energy system was 52% from the solar PV, and 48% from the fuel cell. From the total electricity generated from the photovoltaic hydrogen fuel cell hybrid system, 80.70% is used to meet all the AC load of the residential community with negligible unmet AC primary load (0.08%), 14.08% is the input DC power for the electrolyzer for hydrogen production, 3.30% are the losses in the DC/AC inverter, and 1.84% is the excess power (dumped energy). The proposed off-grid hybrid renewable power system has 40.2% renewable fraction, is economically viable with a levelized cost of energy of 145 $/MWh and is environmentally friendly (zero carbon dioxide emissions during the electricity generation from the solar PV and Fuel Cell hybrid power system).     

PEM electrolysis for production of hydrogen from renewable energy sources

PEM electrolysis is a viable alternative for generation of hydrogen from renewable energy sources. Several possible applications are discussed, including grid independent and grid assisted hydrogen generation, use of an electrolyzer for peak shaving, and integrated systems both grid connected and grid independent where electrolytically generated hydrogen is stored and then via fuel cell converted back to electricity when needed. Specific issues regarding the use of PEM electrolyzer in the renewable energy systems are addressed, such as sizing of electrolyzer, intermittent operation, output pressure, oxygen generation, water consumption and efficiency.     

Electrolytic hydrogen based renewable energy system with oxygen recovery and re-utilization

The Hydrogen Research Institute (HRI) has developed a stand-alone renewable energy (RE) system based on energy storage in the form of hydrogen. When the input devices (wind generator and photovoltaic array) produce more energy than is required by the load, the excess energy is converted by an electrolyzer to electrolytic hydrogen, which is then stored after stages of compression, purification and filtration. Conversely, during a time of input energy deficit, this process is reversed and the hydrogen produced earlier is reconverted to electrical energy through a fuel cell. The oxygen which has been produced by the electrolyzer during the hydrogen production is also stored at high pressure, after having gone through a purification and drying process. This stored oxygen can be re-utilized as oxidant in place of compressed air in the fuel cell. The modifications of the electrolyzer for oxygen storage and re-utilization of it as oxidant for the fuel cell are presented. Furthermore, the HRI has designed and developed the control system with power conditioning devices for effective energy management and automatic operation of the RE system. The experimental results show that a reliable autonomous RE system can be realized for such seasonal energy sources, using stored hydrogen as the long-term energy buffer, and that utilizing the electrolyzer oxygen by-product as oxidant in the fuel cell increases system performance significantly.     

Advanced controller design based on gain and phase margin for microgrid containing PV/WTG/Fuel cell/Electrolyzer/BESS

Nowadays, with the increase in the amount of power generation related to renewable energy resources, the need for energy storage and management is raised. In this regard, the hydrogen energy plays a critical role in the development of renewable technologies. In view of the above, advanced controller design is presented in this paper to effectively perform load frequency control of islanded fuel cell microgrid based on the wind turbine, photovoltaic, fuel cell, electrolyzer, battery energy storage systems, and residential and commercial loads. The controller design is based on the determination of the controller parameters that the fuel cell microgrid system will provide the desired dynamic properties. In the proposed controller design, virtual gain and phase margin testers are added to provide the desired dynamic properties. The controller's stable parameter plane is determined with the help of the stability boundary locus method, taking into account time delay, gain, and phase margin. First, the accuracy of the stable parameter plane determined for the proposed controller design is demonstrated by means of time domain and eigenvalue analyzes. Finally, in order to show the performance of the advanced controller design and the success of the fuel cell as a backup generator, analysis studies have been carried out using actual data of solar and wind, and appropriate changes of load in studied microgrid.     

Solar-powered regenerative PEM electrolyzer/fuel cell system

An electrolyzer/fuel cell energy storage system is a promising alternative to batteries for storing energy from solar electric power systems. Such a system was designed, including a proton-exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer, high-pressure hydrogen and oxygen storage, and a PEM fuel cell. The system operates in a closed water loop. A prototype system was constructed, including an experimental PEM electrolyzer and combined gas/water storage tanks. Testing goals included general system feasibility, characterization of the electrolyzer performance (target was sustainable 1.0 A/cm² at 2.0 V per cell), performance of the electrolyzer as a compressor, and evaluation of the system for direct-coupled use with a PV array. When integrated with a photovoltaic array, this type of system is expected to provide reliable, environmentally benign power to remote installations. If grid-coupled, this system (without PV array) would provide high-quality backup power to critical systems such as telecommunications and medical facilities.     

The coupling factor: A new metric for determining and controlling the efficiency of solar photovoltaic power utilization

The production of electricity and hydrogen in a renewable fashion, such as using solar energy, can provide a clean and sustainable energy source for electric-powered vehicles, including fuel-cell and battery-electric vehicles. Our research on generating hydrogen and charging batteries using renewable solar photovoltaic (PV) electricity has led to the development of a simple and convenient new metric called the coupling factor that describes the fraction of the maximum PV power transferred to electrical loads. The keystone of the coupling factor concept is a regression model to calculate the maximum PV voltage, current, and power as a function of the instantaneous incident solar irradiance and the photovoltaic module temperature. The coupling factor can range from zero to one, i.e., no transfer of power from the PV system to the load, to complete transfer of the PV power. We describe the derivation of regression models to compute important PV electrical output variables, such as the open circuit voltage, the short circuit current, the maximum power point voltage, the maximum power point current, and the coupling factor as a function of the fundamental measured variables affecting those quantities. The models are derived for PV modules used in our previous research to power an electrolyzer and charge high-voltage batteries. In addition, we develop models for other modules using PV cell technologies different from those used in our PV system. Some of the calculated quantities are compared to measurements for our PV system. The usefulness of these quantities, and especially the coupling factor, in rating the transfer of PV power to electrolyzer and battery loads, is illustrated. Finally, we discuss how the predicted maximum power point voltage can be used for real-time control and efficiency optimization of a dynamic PV-load system.     

Enhancement of micro-grid performance during islanding mode using storage batteries and new fuzzy logic pitch angle controller

Power system deregulation, shortage of transmission capacities and needing to reduce green house gas have led to increase interesting in distributed generations (DGs) especially renewable sources. This study developed a complete model able to analysis and simulates in details the transient dynamic performance of the Micro-Grid (MG) during and subsequent islanding process. Wind speed fluctuations cause high fluctuations in output power of wind turbine which lead to fluctuations of frequency and voltages of the MG during the islanding mode. In this paper a new fuzzy logic pitch angle controller is proposed to smooth the output power of wind turbine to reduce MG frequency and voltage fluctuations during the islanding mode. The proposed fuzzy logic pitch controller is compared with the conventional PI pitch angle controller which usually used for wind turbine power control. Results proved the effectiveness of the proposed fuzzy controller in improvement of the MG performance. Also, this paper proposed using storage batteries technique to reduce the frequency deviation and fluctuations originated from wind power solar power fluctuations. Results indicate that the storage batteries technique is superior than fuzzy logic pitch controller in reducing frequency deviation, but with more expensive than the fuzzy controller. All models and controllers are built using Matlab® Simulink® environment.     

Comparative transient simulation of a renewable energy system with hydrogen and battery energy storage for residential applications

Energy systems for the building sector nowadays are moving towards using renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. However, it is nearly impossible to fully develop a multi-generation energy system for a building only relying on these sources without convenient energy storage, backup systems, or connection to the grid. In this work, using TRNSYS software, a model was developed to study the transient behavior of an energy system applicable for residential buildings to supply the heating, cooling, domestic hot water, and electricity in demand. This study contains the comparison of two methods of energy storage, a hydrogen fuel cell/electrolyzer package and a conventional battery system. This study also provides information on environmental impacts and economical aspects of the proposed system. The results show that for an HVAC system when using hydrogen storage system the capital cost is twice the cost of using a battery system. However, the hydrogen system shows better performance when used at higher loads. Hydrogen storage systems show higher performance when used at higher size units.     

Technical and economical design of PV system and hydrogen storage including a sodium hypochlorite plant in a small community: Case of study of Paraguay

The increasing use of renewable power sources for distributed generation (DG) has made the application of storage systems a necessity to ensure the continuous supply. This paper analyzes technically and economically an autonomous sodium hypochlorite plant using a renewable energy source and a hydrogen storage system in the Western Region of Paraguay. In this region, there is abundant underground brackish water to produce industrial and energetic hydrogen. In addition, an isolated photovoltaic (PV) system feeds with electricity an electrolyzer, used for sodium hypochlorite production, and the brackish water and freshwater pumping systems. The hydrogen and fuel cell are used as backup system in the operation of the electrolyzer. Preliminary results show that hydrogen stored during the day can increase hypochlorite production by up to 31%. The PV solar system surplus can supply the demand of an off-grid community near the plant. The results show that the plant's return on investment (ROI) is 7 years.