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Performance Evaluation of A PV- Powered Alkaline Water Electrolyzer for Sustainable Green Hydrogen Production

Performance Evaluation of A PV- Powered Alkaline Water Electrolyzer for Sustainable Green Hydrogen Production
	© 2022 by IJETT Journal
	Volume-70 Issue-6
	Year of Publication : 2022
	Authors : Nand Kishore Singh, Seema Saxena, Vinod Krishna Sethi
	DOI : 10.14445/22315381/IJETT-V70I6P235

How to Cite?

Nand Kishore Singh, Seema Saxena, Vinod Krishna Sethi, "Performance Evaluation of A PV- Powered Alkaline Water Electrolyzer for Sustainable Green Hydrogen Production," International Journal of Engineering Trends and Technology, vol. 70, no. 6, pp. 337-348, 2022. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.14445/22315381/IJETT-V70I6P235

Abstract
Hydrogen is a potential candidate that can serve as a large-scale and long-term storage medium for renewable energy sources. Alkaline Water Electrolysis (AWE) is the only established and technically matured technology for the large-scale production of clean hydrogen. However, finding cost-effective and sustainable materials to design the critical components of alkaline electrolysis cells is still one of the pressing challenges of this technology. This paper presents an experimental study for hydrogen production by alkaline water electrolysis employing austenitic stainless steel electrodes (SS316, SS316L & SS310). The study at RGPV Bhopal intends to evaluate the field performance of AWE under examination by independently using the three sets of electrodes with normal and modified surface morphologies. The impact of surface morphology modification on the cell current density and hydrogen gas evolution rate is experimentally investigated for the three sets of electrodes. The electrolyzer is powered by an array of 0.9kWpamorphous silicon thin film(aSi-TF) P.V. modules. Integrating the aSi-TFPV array and the electrolyzer is done via a DC-DC converter developed for power conditioning and control.
Results reveal that surface morphology modification improves cell current and rate of experimental hydrogen production for all the three austenitic S.S. electrode specimens, with SS310 electrodes exhibiting better cell current values & gas production rates overSS316 & SS316L electrodes.

Keywords
Green Hydrogen, Alkaline Water Electrolysis(AWE), Austenitic Stainless-Steel Electrodes, Surface Morphology, aSi- TFPV modules, DC-DC Converter.

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