Energy Efficiency Evaluation Assessing Hydrogen Production, Energy Storage and Utilization in Integrated Alternative Energy Solutions

Abstract- A growing world population with rising living standards, conditions the need for ever greater levels of energy to power transports. Alternative energy technologies deliver clean energy to meet the needs of the world in terms of transportation. The integration of alternative energy generators is an interesting perspective to prevent issues at the levels of hydrogen supply and energy balance. Additionally, efficiency, storage, and utilization of energy systems play an important role in the consumption of energy. In the current study, the comparative evaluation addressing energy efficiency between hydrogen production via an electrolytic process and hydrogen utilization in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), was investigated using a simulation model. Hydrogen gas was produced from water via electrolysis using alternative energy resources deriving from wind turbines and solar cells. The produced hydrogen gas was compressed and stored under high-pressure conditions, before being supplied to PEMFCs in the frame of electricity production for the purpose of application to an electric vehicle. The hydrogen production and storage solutions derived from wind energy-wind/hydrogen and from solar energy-solar/hydrogen were created on the basis of process simulation models prior to the calculation of both the hydrogen production rate via electrolysis and the energy efficiency value. Subsequently, the utilization of hydrogen energy by PEMFCs was also examined, and the simulation of the fuel cells powered by pressurized hydrogen, was performed to compute the energy efficiency as well. The simulation models of two processes were described in details while the assumptions underlying the calculations appear along. The overall efficiency levels of wind/hydrogen/electricity and solar/hydrogen/electricity systems reported in this work, bestow technical capability for implementation, and the experimental models arguably demonstrate the feasibility of integrating alternative energy technologies to support the growth of modern automotive technologies. Keywords Energy efficiency, PEM fuel cell, Alternative energy, Wind energy, Electrolyzer, Solar energy