Introducing and investigation of a pumped hydro-compressed air storage based on wind turbine and alkaline fuel cell and electrolyzer

Abstract Traditional energy resources are costly and depleting, and their use leads to environmental pollution. The renewable energy resources usage (especially in combination) is unavoidable to meet the energy demand of human societies and achieve sustainable development. The aim of this paper is present the investigation of a new energy system operation based on fuel cell technology and wind energy. The novel energy conversion process proposed consisting of an alkaline fuel cell (AFC), wind turbine (WT) and alkaline electrolyzer (AEL) with pumped hydro-compressed air electrical energy system (PC-EES) to store energy. WT and AFC convert the wind kinetic energy and the fuel chemical energy into electricity, respectively. The electricity generated by the WT provides the power needed by the AEL to provide fuel and oxidant of the AFC. The unused electricity of the WT and output power of the AFC is stored by the PC-EES system. By considering the rate hydrogen production of 0.01 kg/h for AEL, it was found that the electrolyzer consumes 628.4 W of electricity (from WT) and the AFC generates 70.4 W of electrical power. Furthermore, the mean output and efficiency of the WT are 1.91 kW and 19.1%, respectively. Also, the storage efficiency of the system was 70.8%. On average, the system is able to store up to 1.35 kW of power with electrical output. The volume of the storage system during isothermal and isentropic processes was 7.8 and 9.9 m3, respectively.