Design and test of an off-grid marine current-powered seawater desalination and hydrogen production system

Liyuan Zhang, Hongwei Liu, Yajing Gu, He Ren, Yonggang Lin, Tian Zou, Weifei Hu and Luoyang Huang

Energy, 2025, vol. 332, issue C

Abstract: Providing freshwater and energy supply for remote areas and islands is an emerging application of marine current energy. Based on previous simulation studies, a 4 kW prototype is built and tested in the workshop. This experimental work validates the previously proposed concept and further reveals hardware integration challenges, control performance, and real-world system behavior that were not captured in simulations. The system includes a marine current turbine, a directly coupled seawater pump, a PEM electrolyzer, a reverse osmosis desalination unit, and a custom control system with MPPT logic. A 4 kW prototype was constructed and tested in the laboratory using a turbine simulator to emulate real inflow conditions. The test results align well with design expectations and offer new insights into hardware integration and real-world performance limitations. The MPPT controller achieved a power coefficient above 0.4. The specific energy consumption of the desalination and hydrogen production systems were maintained below 3.35 kWh/m3 and 5.78 kWh/Nm3H2, respectively, validating the system's feasibility for practical deployment.

Keywords: Marine current turbine; Hydrogen production; Desalination; Power transmission; Trial testing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:332:y:2025:i:c:s036054422502883x

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2025.137241

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