Energy Reports (Nov 2021)
Evaluation of a new combined energy system performance to produce electricity and hydrogen with energy storage option
Abstract
According to new findings, the use of alternative energy sources such as wind energy is needed to supply the energy demand of future generations. On the other hand, combined renewable energy systems can be more efficient than their stand-alone systems. Therefore, clean energy-based hybrid energy systems can be a suitable solution for fossil fuels. However, for their widespread commercialization, more detailed and powerful studies are needed. On the other hand, in order to attain sustainable development for the use of renewable energy sources due to their nature, energy storage is required. The motivation of this study is introduce and examine a new energy system performance for the production of electricity and hydrogen fuel as well as energy storage. So, this paper presents the energy and exergy operation of a hybrid wind turbine, water electrolyzer and Pumped-hydro-compressed air system. The electricity produced by the wind turbine is used to produce hydrogen fuel in electrolyzer and the excess energy is stored using the storage system. It was found that the electrolyzer needed 512.6 W of electricity to generate 5 mol/h of hydrogen fuel, which was supplied by a 10 kW-wind turbine. In such a context, the efficiency of the process was 74.93%. Furthermore, on average, the isothermal process requires 17.53% less storage capacity than the isentropic process. The effect of key parameters such as rate of hydrogen fuel production, operating pressures, wind speed and components efficiency on the process operation is also examined.
