Processes· 2020Q2· Review
Alkaline Water Electrolysis Powered by Renewable Energy: A Review
- 775citations
- Q2SCImago
- 2020year
Short summary
Alkaline water electrolysis, a key technology for renewable hydrogen, faces challenges with intermittent energy sources due to limited part-load operation and increased gas impurity, necessitating system optimization for competitiveness.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Key points
- Intermittent renewable energy sources pose challenges for conventional alkaline water electrolyzers due to limited part-load operation.
- Low power availability in electrolyzers leads to increased gas impurity, potentially causing safety shutdowns.
- Optimizing system components, including electrolyzers, hydrogen storage, and fuel cells, is essential for efficiency and competitiveness.
- Combining electrolysis with storage and fuel cells can enable power grid stabilization and reduce reliance on conventional spinning reserves.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
Alkaline water electrolysis is a key technology for large-scale hydrogen production powered by renewable energy. As conventional electrolyzers are designed for operation at fixed process conditions, the implementation of fluctuating and highly intermittent renewable energy is challenging. This contribution shows the recent state of system descriptions for alkaline water electrolysis and renewable energies, such as solar and wind power. Each component of a hydrogen energy system needs to be optimized to increase the operation time and system efficiency. Only in this way can hydrogen produced by electrolysis processes be competitive with the conventional path based on fossil energy sources. Conventional alkaline water electrolyzers show a limited part-load range due to an increased gas impurity at low power availability. As explosive mixtures of hydrogen and oxygen must be prevented, a safety shutdown is performed when reaching specific gas contamination. Furthermore, the cell voltage should be optimized to maintain a high efficiency. While photovoltaic panels can be directly coupled to alkaline water electrolyzers, wind turbines require suitable converters with additional losses. By combining alkaline water electrolysis with hydrogen storage tanks and fuel cells, power grid stabilization can be performed. As a consequence, the conventional spinning reserve can be reduced, which additionally lowers the carbon dioxide emissions.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Processes, 2020 · DOI ↗
Continue with a free account
Ask the paper: 3 free questions a day about this paper; save it, get its citation, new summaries every day for your field. Takeaways are Premium.
Continue free on the webSign in with Google or Apple; no card needed. You come back to this paper.
On your phone:
Field: Energy Engineering and Power Technology
Energy Engineering and Power TechnologyEnergy