Solar hydrogen system for cooking applications: Experimental and numerical study

Evangelia Topriska, Maria Kolokotroni, Zahir Dehouche and Earle Wilson

Renewable Energy, 2015, vol. 83, issue C, 717-728

Abstract: This paper describes the development of a semi-empirical numerical model for a solar hydrogen system consisting of a proton exchange membrane electrolyser (PEM) powered by photovoltaic panels to produce hydrogen as fuel for cooking applications, focussing on Jamaica as a suitable case-study. The model was developed in TRNSYS and includes a novel numerical component based on FORTRAN to model the operation of the PEM electrolyser. The numerical component was developed based on operational data from a purpose constructed small-scale experimental rig. The numerical model was calibrated using data from the experimental rig powered by operational data from a photovoltaic panel system in the UK and predicted photovoltaic panel power data from Jamaica. For the test conditions, experiments indicated an electrolysis maximum efficiency of 63.6%. The calibrated model was used to develop a case study analysis for a small community in Jamaica with a daily cooking demand of 39.6 kWh or 1.7 kg of H2 gas. Simulations indicate that the H2 production plan is sufficient for the cooking needs of the case-study.

Keywords: Solar hydrogen system; PEM electrolysis; Photovoltaics; Integrated renewable energy; Simulation; Cooking (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (7)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148115003729
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:83:y:2015:i:c:p:717-728

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2015.05.011

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().