Development of a system configuration for a solar powered hydrogen facility using fuzzy logic control

Abstract

Solar energy is a natural resource which can be harnessed to provide clean electricity for hydrogen production systems. However, this technology is not widely used because of control issues, particularly for hydrogen refuelling stations. At present, direct or DC-DC converter couplings are the most common system configurations for hydrogen refuelling stations. However, these system configurations are costly and suffer from gas shortage at hydrogen refuelling stations. Furthermore, the hydrogen produced by such system configurations varies considerably depending on the levels of solar radiation. In order to address these issues, a new system configuration is proposed, incorporating the feedback signal of the storage level in the control system. The photovoltaic (PV) system, electrolyzer, and storage tank are integrated with a fuzzy logic controller (FLC) to determine the backup current compensation for electrolyzer operation in order to obtain the minimum power required for hydrogen production. The proposed FLC is constructed with three input variables which are the PV current, hydrogen storage level, and the battery state of charge. The rules-based fuzzy inference process is based on the proposed configuration which combines the advantages of direct and DC-DC converter coupling configurations. The simulation results show that the proposed configuration offers better adaptability to variable radiation conditions compared to other methods. This gives a more promising option for ensuring the adequacy of hydrogen supply at hydrogen refuelling stations.

Multi-Objective Optimization of a Hydrogen Hub for the Decarbonization of a Port Industrial Area

“…It should be noted that the optimal PV-electrolyzer power ratio depends on several effects, e.g., the cost of energy units, the energy available from RES, the hydrogen demand profiles. Castellanos et al [13] identified an optimum power ratio between the PV and electrolyzer of 2.85, while in [14], the optimum power ratio was about equal to one.…”

“…Other studies addressed the preliminary design and optimization of green hydrogen energy systems with reference to both techno-economic and environmental aspects. For example, the studies proposed in [13,14] analyzed multi-energy systems and determined the photovoltaic (PV)-electrolyzer power ratio, which minimized the green hydrogen production cost. It should be noted that the optimal PV-electrolyzer power ratio depends on several effects, e.g., the cost of energy units, the energy available from RES, the hydrogen demand profiles.…”