Feasibility study for hydrogen production using hybrid solar power in Algeria

Hydrogen demand as a clean energy is one of the new energy challenges in the future. Being a very controlled technology, the water electrolysis is more efficient at high temperature level than at low one. This is because of the use of thermal energy which is less expensive than the use of electricity power to produce the hydrogen; the chemical reaction is more activated in these conditions. In this paper, the feasibility of hydrogen production at high temperature electrolyser, using a hybrid solar resource, thermal energy (parabolic trough concentrators) to produce high temperature, steam water and photovoltaic energy for electricity requirements of the HTE, is presented. The described here-after presented in this document guarantees the production of an important quantity of hydrogen at 900 °C. The production rate depends on geographic position, on climatic conditions and on sun radiation. The optimization of the process is strongly related to what preceded these three parameters. Then, we suggest the set up construction in any region allowing maximum extraction of energy based in our simulation results.     

Assessment of offshore liquid hydrogen production from wind power for ship refueling

Green hydrogen from electrolysis has become the most attractive energy carrier for making the transition from fossil fuels to carbon-free energy sources possible. Especially in the naval sector, hydrogen has the potential to address environmental targets due to the lack of low-carbon fuel options. This study aims at investigating an offshore liquefied green hydrogen production plant for ship refueling. The plant comprises a wind farm for renewable electricity generation, an electrolyzer stack for hydrogen production, a water treatment unit for demineralized water production, and a hydrogen liquefaction plant for hydrogen storage and distribution to ships. A pre-feasibility study is addressed to find the optimal capacities of the plant that minimize the payback time. The model results show that the electrolyzer capacity shall be set equal to a value between 80% and 90% of the wind farm capacity to achieve the minimum payback times. Additionally, the wind farm capacity shall be higher than about 150 MW to limit the payback time to values lower than 11 years for a fixed hydrogen price of 6 €/kg. The Levelized Cost of Hydrogen results to be below 4 €/kg for a wide range of plant capacities for a lifetime of the plant of 25 years. Thus, the model shows that this plant is economically feasible and can be reproduced similarly for different locations by rescaling the different selected technologies. In this way, the naval sector can be decarbonized thanks to a new infrastructure for the production and refueling of liquified green hydrogen directly provided on the sea.     

Estimating global hydrogen production from wind

It is likely that intermittent renewable sources such as wind and solar will provide the greatest opportunity for future large-scale hydrogen production. Here, on-shore wind is examined. Global wind energy is estimated by placing one 2 MW turbine/km² over the surface of the earth. Wind energy production is based on monthly mean wind speed data. Wind turbines are grouped to form arrays that are linked to local hydrogen generation and transmission networks. Hydrogen generation is done via low-pressure electrolysis and transmission via high-pressure gas pipelines. The wind/hydrogen system is considered within a global energy system that must not only provide hydrogen, but also energy for electricity consumption at the local generation site. The technical potential of the hydrogen produced is estimated to be 116 EJ. Uneven distribution of the hydrogen-rich sites results in the need to export much of the hydrogen produced to energy-poor regions. To overcome system losses, a combined wind/HVDC/hydrogen system is considered.     

Feasibility of using wind turbines for renewable hydrogen production in Firuzkuh,Iran

The present study was conducted with the objective of evaluating several proposed turbines from 25 kW to 1.65 MW in order to select the appropriate turbine for electricity and hydrogen production in Firuzkuh area using the decision making trial and evaluation (DEMATEL) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) methods. Initially, five important factors in selection of the best wind turbine for wind farm construction were determined using the DEMATEL technique. Then, technical-economic feasibility was performed for each of the eight proposed turbines using the HOMER software, and the performance score for each proposed wind turbine was obtained. The results show that the GE 1.5sl model wind turbine is suitable for wind farm construction. The turbine can generate 5515.325 MW of electricity annually, which is equivalent to $ 1103065. The average annual hydrogen production would be 1014 kg for Firuzkuh by using the GE 1.5sl model turbine.     

Research on non-grid-connected wind power/water-electrolytic hydrogen production system

Hydrogen has been recognized as the most promising future energy carrier. At present, industrial hydrogen production processes are not independent of traditional energy resources, which could easily cause secondary pollution. China has abundant wind energy resources. The total installed capacity of wind power doubled every year in the last five years, and reached 26 000 MW by the end of 2009, but over 9880 MW wind turbines were not integrated into grid because of the peak shaving restraint. In this paper, wind power is directly used in water-electrolytic process by some technical improvements, to design non-grid-connected wind power/water-electrolytic hydrogen production system. The system all works properly, based on not only the wind/grid complementary power supply but also the independent supply of simulation wind power. The large-scale fluctuation of current density has little impact on current efficiency and gas quality, and only affects gas output. The new system can break through the bottlenecks of wind power utilization, and explore a diversified development way of large-scale wind power, which will contribute to the development of green economy and low carbon economy in China.     

Opportunities for hydrogen production in connection with wind power in weak grids

This paper gives an overview of the opportunities that exist for combining wind power and hydrogen (H₂) production in weak grids. It is described how H₂ storage can be applied in both isolated and grid-connected systems, and how the produced H₂ can be utilized for stationary energy supply and/or as a fuel for transportation. The paper discusses the benefits and limitations of the different H₂ storage applications, and presents a logistic simulation model for performance evaluation of wind-H₂ plants. A case study simulating the use of excess wind power in a weak distribution grid to produce H₂ for vehicles has been presented. It is shown that the penetration of wind power can be significantly increased by introducing electrolytic H₂ production as a controllable load. The results also indicate that there are large benefits of using the grid as backup for H₂ production in periods with low wind speed, regarding the H₂ storage sizing and the electrolyser operating conditions.     

Modelling of hydrogen production from hydrogen sulfide in geothermal power plants

Geothermal power plants emit high amount of hydrogen sulfide (H₂S). The presence of H₂S in the air, water, soils and vegetation is one of the main environmental concerns for geothermal fields. There is an increasing interest in developing suitable methods and technologies to produce hydrogen from H₂S as promising alternative solution for energy requirements. In the present study, the AMIS technology is the invention of a proprietary technology (AMIS^® - acronym for “Abatement of Mercury and Hydrogen Sulfide” in Italian language) for the abatement of hydrogen sulphide and mercury emission, is primarily employed to produce hydrogen from H₂S. A proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer operates at 150 °C with gaseous H₂S sulfur dimer in the anode compartment and hydrogen gas in the cathode compartment. Thermodynamic calculations of electrolysis process are made and parametric studies are undertaken by changing several parameters of the process. Also, energy and exergy efficiencies of the process are calculated as % 27.8 and % 57.1 at 150 °C inlet temperature of H₂S, respectively.     

Hydrogen production from offshore wind power in South China

Wind power hydrogen production is the direct conversion of electricity generated by wind power into hydrogen through water electrolysis hydrogen production equipment, which produces hydrogen for convenient long-term storage through water electrolysis. With the development of offshore wind power from offshore projects, construction costs continue to rise. Turning power transmission into hydrogen transmission will help reduce the cost of offshore wind power construction. This paper analyses the methods of producing hydrogen from offshore wind power, including alkaline water electrolysis, proton exchange membrane electrolysis of water, and solid oxide electrolysis of water. In addition, this paper outlines economic and cost analyses of hydrogen production from offshore wind power. In the future, with the development and advancement of water electrolysis hydrogen production technology, hydrogen production from offshore wind power could be more economical and practical.     

Feasibility study of off-shore wind farms: an application to Puglia region

Recent environmental constraints and new secure technologies have enforced the development of comprehensive programmes for renewable energy. Wind energy is one of the most promising solutions, especially considering its technological advancements and its growth over the last years. In particular, off-shore wind energy is a key element in the EU White Paper target of 10% contribution of Renewable energy by 2010.In this paper, the technical and economical feasibility of off-shore wind farms is reviewed, in order to evaluate profitability and investment opportunities. In particular, a pre-feasibility study of off-shore wind farms to some selected sites in Puglia Region is provided. The study indicates the best sites in Puglia Region for off-shore plants. For each site, the cost of energy and the profitability of the investment are calculated. Moreover, in the most promising site, different wind turbine generators (WTGs) models are compared in order to evaluate the best performances. In the best site, which presents an average wind speed at 35 m height of 7.66 m/s, the cost of energy ranges between 5.2 and 6.0 c€/kWh. Moreover, the analysis shows that the use of large size WTGs allows reducing the cost of energy and increasing the profitability of the wind farm.     

Model-based analysis of effects from large-scale wind power production

For an economically and ecologically optimised integration of fluctuating renewable power generation (especially wind power) into electricity generation, a detailed consideration of fluctuation-induced effects on the existing power system is essential. A model-based approach is introduced in this paper, which comprehensively analyses the impact of such effects on power plant scheduling and facilitates their integration into the development of strategies for an optimised evolution of the future power system structure. The newly developed Aeolius tool for the simulation of power plant scheduling is described. In a combined analysis of long- and short-term effects it is used together with the multi-periodic cost-optimising energy system model PERSEUS-CERT. Based on the Matlab/Simulink^® package, Aeolius considers the challenges for plant scheduling down to a time scale of 10 min. Special attention is paid to the provision of stand-by capacities and control power, as well as intermediate storage. Thus, a sophisticated quantification of the actual (net) benefits of wind power feed-in is achieved. Model results for Germany show that wind mainly substitutes power from intermediate-load and base-load plants (coal-, lignite-, and nuclear-fired). However, the required provision of stand-by capacities and control power does not only limit the substitution of conventional capacities, but also the achievable net savings of fuel and emissions in conventional power generation.     

Feasibility of hydrogen production from coal electrolysis at intermediate temperatures

Hydrogen production via coal electrolysis was evaluated at intermediate temperatures (40–108 °C). A coal electrolytic cell (CEC) was designed and constructed to carry out galvanostatic experiments with concentrated electrolyte (4 M H₂SO₄). Operating temperatures above 100 °C were found to significantly improve the kinetics of electro-oxidation of coal, coal conversion, and CO₂/coal Faradaic efficiency. CO₂/coal Faradaic efficiencies and coal conversions of up to 57.29 and 3.21%, respectively, were observed at 108 °C.     

Modeling and control design of hydrogen production process for an active hydrogen/wind hybrid power system

This paper gives a control oriented modeling of an electrolyzer, as well as the ancillary system for the hydrogen production process. A Causal Ordering Graph of all necessary equations has been used to illustrate the global scheme for an easy understanding. The model is capable of characterizing the relations among the different physical quantities and can be used to determine the control system ensuring efficient and reliable operation of the electrolyzer. The proposed control method can manage the power flow and the hydrogen flow. The simulation results have highlighted the variation domains and the relations among the different physical quantities. The model has also been experimentally tested in real time with a Hardware-In-the-Loop Simulation before being integrated in the test bench of the active wind energy conversion system.     

Optimal energy production from wind and hydroelectric power plants

All countries attach great importance to renewable energy investments with concern that future fossil-fueled energy resources could be exhausted. Thus, a very large renewable energy production potential may be predicted in not a very distant future. This study is about optimal energy production from wind and hydroelectric power plants at a small scale settlement center. A water resources system with multiple reservoirs in which wind power plants are located around the basin is described in this study. The system has three scenarios, in which wind and hydroelectric power plants are integrated, separated and no wind turbines. In the integrated scenario, by the energy generated in the wind power plants, the released flows from the reservoirs are sent to the reservoirs as a use again. In models of every scenario, optimal operational models for long-term planning are established on the system. The technique of dynamic programming with successive approximations is used in these models. The models are applied to a water resources system with multiple reservoirs presented successively on the main line of the Ceyhan River in the Ceyhan Basin. The results obtained here are evaluated in terms of three scenarios developed for energy production. As a result, it has been seen that the systems of the integrated and separated scenario are similar to energy productions and system without wind turbines produces more little energy production to other scenarios.     

Feasibility study of a hybrid wind/hydro power-system for low-cost electricity production

This paper deals with the operation of a hybrid wind/hydro power system aiming at producing low cost electricity. A specific application on the island of Ikaria in Greece is analysed and typical results are presented and compared to the results produced from a simulation program. The simulation program, which is based on the stochastic behaviour of the weather conditions, uses as input data the monthly wind-speed distribution and, to a smaller extent, which is determined from the use of an appropriate weighting factor, the rate of rain water which is stored in the hydro reservoir. Useful conclusions were drawn regarding the feasibility of these applications in Greek islands and the expected electric energy saving.     

Influence of wind turbine power curve and electrolyzer operating temperature on hydrogen production in wind-hydrogen systems

Current simulation tools used to analyze, design and size wind-hydrogen hybrid systems, have several common characteristics: all use manufacturer wind turbine power curve (obtained from UNE 61400-12) and always consider electrolyzer operating in nominal conditions (not taking into account the influence of thermal inertia and operating temperature in hydrogen production). This article analyzes the influence of these parameters. To do this, a mathematical wind turbine model, that represents the manufacturer power curve to the real behaviour of the equipment in a location, and a dynamic electrolyzer model are developed and validated. Additionally, hydrogen production in a wind-hydrogen system operating in “wind-balance” mode (adjusting electricity production and demand at every time step) is analyzed. Considering the input data used, it is demonstrated that current simulation tools present significant errors in calculations. When using the manufacturer wind turbine power curve: the electric energy produced by the wind turbine, and the annual hydrogen production in a wind-hydrogen system are overestimated by 25% and 33.6%, respectively, when they are compared with simulation results using mathematical models that better represent the real behaviour of the equipments. Besides, considering electrolyzer operating temperature constant and equal to nominal, hydrogen production is overestimated by 3%, when compared with the hydrogen production using a dynamic electrolyzer model.     

Prioritizing of wind farm locations for hydrogen production: A case study

Many advantages of renewable energies, especially wind energy, such as abundance, permanence, and lack of pollution has encouraged many industrialized and developing countries to focus more on these clean and economic sources of energy. Identifying a good location that is suitable for the construction of a wind farm is one of the important initial steps in harnessing wind energy which is assessed this study. The purpose of this study is to prioritize and rank 13 cities of Fars province in Iran, in terms of their suitability for the construction of a wind farm. Six important criteria were used to prioritize and rank the cities. Wind power density is the most important criterion among these criteria which is calculated by obtaining the 3-h wind speed data between 2004 and 2013. DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) method is used for prioritizing and ranking cities, and then AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process), and FTOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) methods are used to assess the validity of results. It is concluded that Izadkhast city is the suggested location for the construction of wind farm. The utilizing a wind-hydrogen energy conversion system will result in a substantial amount of hydrogen production (averagely 21.9 ton/year) when a 900 kW wind turbine is installed in this location.     

Simulating offshore hydrogen production via PEM electrolysis using real power production data from a 2.3 MW floating offshore wind turbine

This work presents simulation results from a system where offshore wind power is used to produce hydrogen via electrolysis. Real-world data from a 2.3 MW floating offshore wind turbine and electricity price data from Nord Pool were used as input to a novel electrolyzer model. Data from five 31-day periods were combined with six system designs, and hydrogen production, system efficiency, and production cost were estimated. A comparison of the overall system performance shows that the hydrogen production and cost can vary by up to a factor of three between the cases. This illustrates the uncertainty related to the hydrogen production and profitability of these systems. The highest hydrogen production achieved in a 31-day period was 17 242 kg using a 1.852 MW electrolyzer (i.e., utilization factor of approximately 68%), the lowest hydrogen production cost was 4.53 $/kg H₂, and the system efficiency was in the range 56.1–56.9% in all cases.     

Prospects of solar hydrogen production in the Adrar region

The region of Adrar, is one of the most remote and the most deprived regions in Algeria. The development of this region requires the exploitation of its natural resources more particularly of its solar and wind energy resources. However, the exploitation in an effective and viable way of these huge natural resources requires the conversion of these sources of energy into an energy vector that is versatile in its use, storable, transportable and ecologically acceptable. Solar hydrogen seems to be the best candidate today.In the present work, the meteorological and radiometric data of the region are examined. A system of PV–electrolyzer system of solar hydrogen production is proposed. An estimate of the solar hydrogen potential and its production cost are carried out. Finally, the results are discussed.     

Feasibility of on-board hydrogen production from hydrolysis of Al-Fe alloy for PEMFCs

The feasibility of using the hydrolysis of Al alloys in an on-board hydrogen generation system for PEMFCs is investigated. Hydrogen produced by the hydrolysis of Al-Fe alloys is supplied directly to a PEMFC. The weight-normalized hydrogen generation rate of sheet Al-1Fe is higher than that of cubic Al-1Fe alloy, and its hydrogen generation rate changes little during hydrolysis in alkali water. Furthermore, during the hydrolysis reaction, the water temperature is stable. Hence, Al-1Fe in sheet form is suitable as a source for on-board hydrogen production from hydrolysis in alkali water. At a current of 10 A, the PEMFC presents a voltage of about 0.71 V, which remains stable for 37 min. However, after 37 min, the cell voltage decreases dramatically to 0 V due to a reduction in hydrogen feeding rate by exhaustion of Al-1Fe. It is particularly notable that on-board hydrogen production using the hydrolysis of Al-Fe alloy exhibits self-humidification, supplying humidity automatically without a humidifier.