Power Generation Analysis of Terrestrial Ultraviolet-Assisted Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cell

Muhammad Salim Butt, Hifsa Shahid, Farhan Ahmed Butt, Iqra Farhat, Munazza Sadaf, Muhammad Raashid and Ahmad Taha
Additional contact information
Muhammad Salim Butt: Department of Electrical Engineering, New Campus, University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, Lahore 39021, Pakistan
Hifsa Shahid: Department of Electrical Engineering, New Campus, University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, Lahore 39021, Pakistan
Farhan Ahmed Butt: Department of Electrical Engineering, New Campus, University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, Lahore 39021, Pakistan
Iqra Farhat: Department of Electrical Engineering, New Campus, University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, Lahore 39021, Pakistan
Munazza Sadaf: Department of Electrical Engineering, FSD Campus, University of Engineering and Technology Lahore, Lahore 38070, Pakistan
Muhammad Raashid: Department of Chemical, Polymer and Composite Materials Engineering, New Campus, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore 39021, Pakistan
Ahmad Taha: James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 3, 1-14

Abstract: This paper presents a novel system design that considerably improves the entrapment of terrestrial ultraviolet (UV) irradiance in a customized honeycomb structure to produce hydrogen at a standard rate of 7.57 slpm for places with a UV index > 11. Thermolysis of high salinity water is done by employing a solid oxide electrolyzer cell (SOEC), which comprises three customized, novel active optical subsystems to filter, track, and concentrate terrestrial UV solar irradiance by Fresnel lenses. The output of systems is fed to a desalinator, a photovoltaic system to produce electrical energy, and a steam generator with modified surface morphology to generate the required superheated steam for the SOEC. A simulation in COMSOL Multiphysics ver. 5.6 has shown that a customized honeycomb structure, when incorporated on the copper–nickel surface of a steam generator, improves its absorptance coefficient up to 93.43% (48.98%—flat case). This results in generating the required superheated steam of 650 °C with a designed active optical system comprising nine Fresnel lenses (7 m 2 ) that offer the concentration of 36 suns on the honeycomb structure of the steam generator as input. The required 1.27 kW of electrical power is obtained by concentrating the photovoltaic system using In 0.33 Ga 0.67 N/Si/InN solar cells. This production of hydrogen is sustainable and cost effective, as the estimated cost over 5 years by the proposed system is 0.51 USD/kg, compared to the commercially available system, which costs 3.18 USD/kg.

Keywords: integration of renewable energy in industry; concentrated photovoltaics; solid oxide electrolyzer cells; thermolysis; honeycomb; absorptance coefficient (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/3/996/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/3/996/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:3:p:996-:d:737577

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().