Overview of Power Electronic Converter Topologies Enabling Large-Scale Hydrogen Production via Water Electrolysis

Abstract

Renewable power-to-hydrogen (P2H) technology is one of the most promising solutions for fulfilling the increasing global demand for hydrogen and to buffer large-scale, fluctuating renewable energies. The high-power, high-current ac/dc converter plays a crucial role in P2H facilities, transforming medium-voltage (MV) ac power to a large dc current to supply hydrogen electrolyzers. This work introduces the general requirements, and overviews several power converter topologies for P2H systems. The performances of different topologies are evaluated and compared from multiple perspectives. Moreover, the future trend of eliminating the line frequency transformer (LFT) is discussed. This work can provide guidance for future designing and implementing of power-electronics-based P2H systems.

Keywords

• high-power ac/dc converter
• IGBT
• power-to-hydrogen
• water electrolysis
• thyristor