Techno‐economic analysis of metal hydride‐based energy storage system in microgrid

Abstract

Hydrogen can be a promising option as an energy storage medium in renewable power generator‐based microgrid. However, the technologies used for the hydrogen storage such as high pressure in gaseous form and solid storages can significantly affect the cost performance of the hydrogen‐based microgrid. In this study, a techno‐economic assessment for solid hydrogen storage (metal hydride [MH])‐based microgrid in Indian operating conditions has been carried out in terms of levelized cost of electricity (LCOE), net present cost, and avoided environmental emissions. In the present microgrid, excess photovoltaic (PV) generator electricity is used to generate hydrogen using the alkaline water electrolyzer (EL). This generated hydrogen is stored in the MH cylinder. The stored hydrogen is converted back into electricity by fuel cell (FC) in case of insufficiency of PV electricity. The sizing of the microgrid components such as PV, FC, EL, and hydrogen storage tank are obtained for given load profile using HOMER optimization tool. An attempt has been made for the cost evaluation of the solid and high‐pressure gaseous storages in the microgrid. A comparative study between two energy storage mediums such as battery and hydrogen in microgrid is also performed. In case of battery and hydrogen storages, the LCOE is found to be 0.1293 and 0.383 $/kWh, respectively. It was found that battery storage system is more economical than hydrogen storage in microgrid. Nonetheless, the difference between the LCOE in hydrogen‐based microgrid is reduced considerably with optimized cost scenario of the EL, FC, and H2 storage tank as compared to the battery storage. Such technical, economic, and environmental assessment of the MH‐based microgrid system provides a firm basis to policymakers for shaping energy and environment policies for hydrogen activities.

Plasma modified and tailored defective electrocatalysts for water electrolysis and hydrogen fuel cells

“…Anions and cations recombine on the cathode to form water and electrons move through an external circuit to generate a current. The reactions are outlined in Equations ( 7)- (9). At present, Pt-based catalysts, particularly carbon-supported Pt nanoparticles, are considered the most effective catalysts despite wellknown drawbacks such as the high cost, hydrogen peroxide formation, and sensitivity to impurities and contaminants including CO, H 2 S, and organic compounds.…”

“…Hydrogen produced from wind, sun, and tidal waves in remote areas can be transported over a long distance via specially designed pipelines or existing natural gas pipelines with high resistance against hydrogen embrittlement 7 . Although batteries can store electricity generated by photovoltaic and wind power, they are not suitable for long‐term storage and transportation because of inherent self‐discharging and environmental effects such as excessive mining and manufacturing pollution 8,9 . Hence, the development of commercial hydrogen energy production technology is of great significance in order to promote carbon energy transformation, industrial upgrading, and sustainable economic development 10 .…”

“…7 Although batteries can store electricity generated by photovoltaic and wind power, they are not suitable for long-term storage and transportation because of inherent self-discharging and environmental effects such as excessive mining and manufacturing pollution. 8,9 Hence, the development of commercial hydrogen energy production technology is of great significance in order to promote carbon energy transformation, industrial upgrading, and sustainable economic development. 10 However, since the majority of the world's hydrogen ($95%) is generated by converting fossil fuels, the current hydrogen industry is not environmentally green and in the drive to accomplish carbon neutrality, water splitting driven by renewable energy has become the forefront and hotspot of current research.…”

Optimal hybrid microgrid sizing framework for the mining industry with three case studies from Australia

“…As an economic optimisation tool, HOMER Pro has the following objective function to minimise the COE while maintaining the various system constraints [41,44,45], as:…”

“…HOMER Pro has been used in various techno‐economic analysis and sensitivity analysis studies [26–50] for different stand‐alone or grid‐connected hybrid microgrids (with different microgrid configurations from conventional to totally renewable with different configurable generation resources within the software (diesel generator, natural gas generator, solar PV, wind, biomass, fuel cell, hydro) energy storage devices including different battery technologies, hydrogen and supercapacitors) for different applications (residential, community, commercial and agricultural). These case studies covered systems in various countries such as: Canada [26, 36], Australia [27, 37], India [28, 32, 40, 44], Spain [29], Morocco [30], Malaysia [31], Greece [33], Venezuela [34], Saudi Arabia [35], Iraq [38], Myanmar [39], Sudan [41], South Africa [42, 49, 50], USA [43], Egypt [45], China [46], Iran [47] and Pakistan [48]. Two studies [29, 48] integrate demand side management to minimise the unnecessary capital initial investment in the power plant.…”