Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM electrolyser in Algeria

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 2 ) 1 e1 1

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Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM electrolyser in Algeria Djamila Ghribi a,*, Abdellah Khelifa b, Said Diaf a, Maı¨ouf Belhamel a a b

Center of Development of Renewable Energy, BP 62 Route de l’observatoire, Bouzare´ah, Algiers, Algeria Laboratory of Chemicals Engineering, University S. Dahlab of Blida, BP 270, Blida, Algeria

article info

abstract

Article history:

Hydrogen fuel can be produced by using solar electric energy from photovoltaic (PV)

Received 21 June 2012

modules for the electrolysis of water without emitting carbon dioxide or requiring fossil

Received in revised form

fuels.

14 September 2012

In this paper, an assessment of the technical potential for producing hydrogen from the

Accepted 29 September 2012

PV/proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyser system is investigated. The present study

Available online xxx

estimates the amount of hydrogen produced by this system in six locations using hourly global solar irradiations on horizontal plane and ambient temperature. The system studied

Keywords:

in this work is composed of 60 W PV module connected with a commercial 50 W PEM

Hydrogen production

electrolyser via DC/DC converter equipped with a maximum power point tracking. The

PEM electrolyser

primary objective is to develop a mathematical model of hydrogen production system,

PV system

including PV module and PEM electrolyser to analyze the system performance. The

Solarehydrogen system

secondary aim is to compare the system performance in terms of hydrogen production at

Simulation

seven locations situated in different regions of Algeria. The amount of hydrogen produced is estimated at seven locations situated in different regions. In terms of hydrogen production, the results show that the southern region of Algeria (Adrar, Ghardaia, Bechar and Tamanrasset) is found to have the relatively highest hydrogen production. The total annual production of hydrogen is estimated to be around 20e29 m3 at these sites. The hydrogen production at various sites has been found to vary according to the solar radiation. Copyright ª 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1.

Introduction

Hydrogen can be generated by a wide range of technologies such as: reforming of natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, gasoline .etc.; gasification of coal and biomass; electrolysis of water using nuclear, fossil or renewable energy sources; photoelectrochemical/photocatalytic splitting of water; thermolysis and thermo-chemical cycles [1e5]. But to respect the environment, the solution of renewable energy sources, particularly solar energy, appears most appropriate for a climate of clean future industry.

The coupling of a PV generator and an electrolyser, [6e13], besides the catalytic splitting water [14e22] is the most promising options for obtaining hydrogen from a clean renewable energy source. But at present, the second technology is not well developed as the PVeElectrolyser system, because the challenges of the research to find materials which possess low overpotentials are not solved yet. A PVehydrogen system usually consists of supplying electric power to a water electrolyser by a PV generator. The PV’s technology is well known. For electrolyser, currently

* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ213 21 901 503; fax: þ213 21 901 654. E-mail address: [email protected] (D. Ghribi). 0360-3199/$ e see front matter Copyright ª 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175

Please cite this article in press as: Ghribi D, et al., Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175

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Imax,ref

Nomenclature Gb Gref Gb,b Gr,b Gd,b q qz d F u Vpv Ipv C1, C2 Voc,ref Isc,ref

2

total solar radiation on a tilted surface Gaˆ, W/m reference solar radiation, 1000 W/m2 hourly beam radiation on the tilted surface, W/m2 hourly reflected radiation on the tilted surface, W/m2 hourly sky diffuse radiation on the tilted surface, W/m2 the angle of incidence the zenith angle declination latitude hour angle calculated at midhour photovoltaic module output voltage, V photovoltaic module output current, A constants calculated at each simulation open circuit voltage under normal conditions of solar irradiance and temperature short circuit current under normal conditions of solar irradiance and temperature

most of the commercial water electrolysis technologies use acidic or alkaline electrolyte systems for hydrogen generation. More recently a solid state water electrolysis technology based on polymer electrolyte membrane has been under development and is being commercialised [23e25]. Its operation can be considered to be reverse to that of a PEM fuel cell. The PEM electrolysis systems can respond rapidly to varying power inputs and therefore can be easily integrated with renewable energy systems. To contribute to the production of hydrogen by renewable energy, the Algerian Government has launched, through the General Direction of Scientific Research and Technological Development (DGRST), a National Research Program (PNR) intended to promote renewable energies [26]. Among the selected and accepted projects, there is the project “SOLAHYD”. This project consists to conduct an initial pilot experiment for hydrogen production by realization of an experimental test bench. This test bench contains a PV module and PEM electrolyser. The different steps of project realization are defined. The first step of this project mainly focuses on realizing the modeling and simulation. In this context, this paper presents the performance analysis of hydrogen production system using PV energy and PEM electrolyser. In addition, this study allows to estimates the amount of hydrogen produced in different regions of Algeria. The system considered in this study is consisted of 60 W PV module connected with a commercial 50 W PEM electrolysers PEM Staxx (h-tec) stack (seven cells connected in series) via a converter DC/DC. The system works at the maximum power point. The main objective of this study consists an evaluation of the technical performance of the hydrogen production system

Vmax,ref NOCT Ta Tc Tc,ref mIsc mVoc IEL t F P R z PGPV PEL

current at maximum power point under normal conditions of solar irradiance and temperature voltage at maximum power point under normal conditions of solar irradiance and temperature Nominal Operating Cell Temperature, that is PV cell temperature when Ta ¼ 20  C and G ¼ 800 W/m2 ambient temperature,  C cell temperature,  C reference cell temperature, 25  C coefficient of variation of short circuit current as a function of temperature coefficient of variation of the open circuit voltage as a function of temperature input current of the electrolyser, A time in seconds (3600) Faraday constant, 96,485 C/mol atmospheric pressure, 1.013 $ 105 Pa ideal gas constant, 8314 J/mol K number of electrons (zðH2 Þ ¼ 2) delivered power of the PV generator power required by the electrolyser

(PV energy and PEM electrolyser) in terms of hydrogen production at various locations in Algeria. This work is divided into two parts: the first part presents the mathematical model of hydrogen production system; including PV module and PEM electrolyser. The second part of this paper presents the simulation results related to the technical evaluation of hydrogen generation from the studied system for seven locations situated in different regions.

2.

Modeling of PVehydrogen system

The main components of the PV hydrogen system are the PV generator and the electrolyser. The system is presented in Fig. 1. In the following sections, the models of the system components are presented.

2.1.

PV system model

In this study, the PV power generation simulation model consists of two parts: solar radiation on PV module surface and PV generator model.

2.1.1.

Solar radiation model on PV module surface

The total solar radiation on a tilted surface Gaˆ can be calculated by the following expression [27]: Gb ¼ Gb;b þ Gr;b þ Gd;b

(1)

where Gb,b, Gr,b and Gd,b are the hourly beam, reflected and sky diffuse radiation on the tilted surface respectively.

2.1.1.1. The tilted beam radiation. The beam radiation on the tilted surface can be simulated by the following expression:

Please cite this article in press as: Ghribi D, et al., Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175

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Fig. 1 e Schematic of PV hydrogen production system.

Gb;b ¼ ðGh  Gd;h Þ

cos ðqÞ cos ðqz Þ

(2)

where Gh, Gd,h, q, qz are respectively the horizontal solar global radiation, the horizontal diffuse solar radiation, the angle of incidence and the zenith angle. qz is calculated by the well-known formula [27]: cos qz ¼ sin d sin F þ cos d cos F cos u

(3)

where d is the declination (23.45  d  23.45 ), F is the geographic latitude and u is the hour angle calculated at midhour. q is the angle of incidence for an arbitrarily inclined surface oriented toward the equator and calculated by cos q ¼ sin d sin ðF  bÞ þ cos d cos ðF  bÞcos u

(4)

In this study, the estimation of the horizontal diffuse solar radiation is based on the CLIMED2 model [28]. This model uses the diffuse fraction correlation defined as follows: f¼

Gd;h Gh

(5)

The diffuse fraction correlation is represented by the following expressions:

8 < f ¼ 0:995  0:081k for k  0:21 f ¼ 0:724 þ 2:738k  8:32k2 þ 4:967k3 for 0:21 < k  0:76 : f ¼ 0:180 for k > 0:76

(6)

where k is the clearness index. (k ¼ Gh/G0h) and G0h is the horizontal extraterrestrial solar radiation.

2.1.1.2. The reflected radiation. Considering that the reflection is isotropic and the beam and diffuse radiation reflectances are identical, the hourly radiation reflected by the ground is 1 Gr;b ¼ rGh ð1  cos ðbÞÞ 2

(7)

where b is the slop angle of the PV module (considered in this paper equal to the latitude of the site) and r is the albedo (taken equal to 0.2).

2.1.1.3. The tilted diffuse component. The Klucher model [29] is utilized to estimate the diffuse radiation on the module surface       1 3 b 3 1 þ F cos2 ðqÞsin ðqz Þ Gd;b ¼ Gd;h ð1 þ cos ðbÞÞ 1 þ F sin 2 2 (8)

1.0

0.8

F factor

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.0 0

72

144

216

288

360

432

504

576

648

720

(hour)

Fig. 2 e Variation of F factor during January for the site of Adrar. Please cite this article in press as: Ghribi D, et al., Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175

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Fig. 3 e How to obtain tilted solar radiation data [30].

F is the modulating function given by: 2  Gd;h F¼1 Gh

5.00

(9)

2.1.2.

where  1

Imax;ref Isc;ref



  Vmax;ref exp C2 Voc;ref

3.00

2.00

1.00

PV generator model

To match a PV module with an electrolyser, it’s necessary to know the currentevoltage characteristics of the PV modules. In this study, an explicit model is used for determining the characteristic curves of PV module. This model requires four input parameters related to the reference Conditions (cell temperature ¼ 25  C and solar irradiance ¼ 1000 W/m2): the short circuit current Isc,ref, the open circuit voltage Voc,ref, the maximum power current of the module Imax,ref and the maximum power voltage of the module Vmax,ref [31]. Then, the currentevoltage (IpveVpv) characteristic of the PV module under the reference conditions can be given as follows:      Vpv 1 (10) Ipv ¼ Isc;ref 1  C1 exp C2 Voc;ref

C1 ¼

Current (A)

As example, the variation of F is represented in Fig. 2 for the month of January for the site of Adrar. The methodology adopted to obtain the hourly global radiation on an inclined plane is described by Diaf et al. [30]. It is summarized by the block diagram shown in Fig. 3.

4.00

0.00

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

Voltage (V)

Fig. 4 e Experimental IeV characteristic curve of 50 W PEM electrolyser. 

C2 ¼

Vmax;ref =Voc;ref  1   ln 1  Imax;ref =Isc;ref

(12)

Under the variable operating conditions of temperature and solar irradiance, the new values of the current (Ipvn) and the voltage (Vpvn) of the PV module/generator are obtained by: Ipvn ¼ Ipv þ DI

(13)

Vpvn ¼ V þ DV

(14)

(11)

Table 2 e Selected sites. Table 1 e Specifications of the StaXX7 PEM electrolyser unit. Electrode area Dimensions Power Permissible voltage Permissible current H2 production

7 cells of 16 cm2 each 190  264  200 mm 50 W a` 14 V DC 10.5e14.0 V DC 0e4.0 A DC 230 cm3/min

Site Adrar Algiers Batna Bechar Ghardaı¨a Tlemcen Tamanrasset

Latitude ( N)

Altitude (m)

27.49 36.45 35.33 31.37 32.24 35.01 22.47

279 116 1052 772 468 247 1377

Please cite this article in press as: Ghribi D, et al., Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175

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DI and DV represent respectively the variation of the PV module current and voltage with solar radiation and temperature and they are given by the following equations [32e34]:    Gb Gb  1 Isc;ref DT þ Gref Gref

 DI ¼ mIsc

(15)

 DV ¼ 0:0539$Vmax;ref ln

Gb Gref



  mVoc Tc  Tc;ref

DT ¼ Tc  Tc;ref

5

(16) (17)

where Gaˆ is the global solar irradiance on tilted PV module (W/ m2), Gref is the reference solar irradiance (1000 W/m2), Tc,ref is the reference cell temperature (25  C), mIsc, mVoc are

Fig. 5 e Daily global solar radiation on horizontal plane in (a) December (b) July [45]. Please cite this article in press as: Ghribi D, et al., Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175

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respectively the module current and module voltage temperature coefficients. Tc represents the cell operating temperature and can be given by the following equation [35e37]: Tc ¼ Ta þ Gb

  NOCT  20 800

(18)

where Ta is the ambient temperature and NOCT is the normal operating cell temperature, which is generally given by the manufacturer’s PV modules. The maximum power point current Imax and voltage Vmax under arbitrary conditions can be expressed by the following equations [35e37]:

Hourly Solar Irradiation (Wh/m2)

a

    Vmax Imax ¼ Isc;ref 1  C1 exp  1 þ DI C2 Voc;ref

(19)

  Einc þ mVoc DT Vmax ¼ Vmax;ref 1 þ 0:0539log Eref

(20)

2.2.

PEM electrolyser model

In this paper, an empirical method is used to approach electrical behavior of commercial 50 W StaXX7 h-tec PEM electrolyser comprising a stack of seven PEM cells in series. The specifications of this electrolyser type are given in Table 1.

1200

800

400

0 0

2000

4000

6000

8000

6000

8000

Time (h)

Hourly Solar Irradiation (Wh/m2)

b

1200

800

400

0 0

2000

4000

Time (h)

Fig. 6 e Hourly solar irradiation on tilted plane of (a) Adrar (b) Algiers. Please cite this article in press as: Ghribi D, et al., Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175

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Table 3 e Electrical characteristics of the PV module (BPSX 60). Type of module

BP SX 60

Maximum power (Pmax,ref) Voltage at Pmax (Vmp,ref) Current at Pmax (Imp,ref) Short circuit current (Isc,ref) Open circuit voltage (Voc,ref) Temperature coefficient of Isc Temperature coefficient of Voc Temperature coefficient of power NOCT

60 W 16.8 V 3.56 A 3.87 A 21 V (0.065  0.015)%/ C (80  10) mV/ C (0.5  0.05)%/ C 45  2  C

Several empirical models have been developed to describe the characteristic of different types of electrolysers. These models can be represented by a linear equation, exponential equation or by the curve of Tafel [38e41]. In this paper, the currentevoltage characteristic curve of the electrolyser is estimated through polynomial interpolation of the experimental data values given in literature [38,42]. Fig. 4 shows the experimental currentevoltage characteristic curve of the electrolyser. The fitting equation of the experimental IeV characteristic curve, elaborated in this work can be expressed as: 8 V  10 < 0 3 (21) IEL ¼ P i : ai V V > 10 i¼0

where the ai are the polynomial coefficients (a0 ¼ 128.118; a1 ¼ 33.1587; a2 ¼ 2.76617; a3 ¼ 0.0732506) with quadratic error, R2 ¼ 0.01588155. Estimation of hydrogen production According to Faraday’s law, the amount of hydrogen produced by the electrolyser in 1 h can be calculated by: VH2 ðproducedÞ hf ¼ VH2 ðcalculatedÞ

7

the number of PEM electrolyser cell stacks, F is the Faraday constant (96,485 C/mol), Ta is the ambient temperature (298 K), P is the atmospheric pressure, R is the ideal gas constant (8314 J/mol K) and z is the excess number of electron which is 2 for hydrogen. By substitution, we obtain: VH2 ðcalculatedÞ ¼ 0:4467  nc  IEL

(24)

Hence VH2

produced

¼ 0:4467  IEL  nc  hf ðl=hÞ

(25)

According to the literature, the faradic efficiency of PEM electrolyser’s is assumed to be more than 99% [44]. So in this study, the faradic efficiency is taken arbitrary equal to 97%.

2.3.

Coupling of a PV generator to a PEM electrolyser

In this study, the electrolyser is coupled to the PV generator via control system with a maximum power point tracking DC/DC converter (MPPT). Both systems (PV generator and electrolyser) work in optimal conditions, but some losses have been taken into account in the DC/DC converter. During this operation of the system, two cases are considered:  PGPV  PEL The power generated by the PV generator is less than or equal to the power required by the electrolyser PEL. In this case, the power generated by the PV generator is completely delivered to the electrolyser.  PGPV > PEL

(22)

The power generated by the PV generator is greater than the power required by the electrolyser PEL. In this case, the power overproduced by the PV generator is assumed to be wasted.

(23)

3.

where VH2 ðcalculatedÞ ¼ nc

R  IEL  Ta  t FPz

[43]IEL is the input current of the electrolyser in (A), t is the period of time current supplied to electrolyser in (s) (3600), nc is

Results and discussion

This study is to present the performance analysis of PV module/PEM electrolyser system for producing the hydrogen

Fig. 7 e IeV curves of PV module at different levels of solar irradiance. Please cite this article in press as: Ghribi D, et al., Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175

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assumed to be installed at seven sites located in two different regions of Algeria: Southern region (Adrar, Bechar, Ghardaia and Tamanrasset) and Northern region (Algiers, Batna and Tlemcen) Table 2. The simulations are computed using one

year of hourly global solar irradiations on horizontal plane and hourly ambient temperature. The solar power is assumed to be constant during the time step (1 h in this study).

Fig. 8 e Yearly profile of hourly hydrogen produced by PV-electrolyser system in (a) Adrar, (b) Algiers, (c) Tamanrasset. Please cite this article in press as: Ghribi D, et al., Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175

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3.1.

Radiation results

are given for different solar radiation levels 200, 400, 600, 800, and 1000 W/m2. As shown in this figure, at fixed cell temperature, the short circuit current and the open circuit voltage are influenced by the incident solar radiation. The open circuit voltage increases logarithmically by increasing the solar radiation, whereas the short circuit current increases linearly. The influence of the temperature is also illustrated in this figure. It shows that at a fixed radiation level, an increasing temperature leads to a decreasing open circuit voltage and a slightly increased short circuit current. Thus the temperature effects must be incorporated into the model. In addition, under standard conditions, the simulation results closely match those provided in the manufacturer’s datasheet.

As mentioned earlier, the study objective is to analyze the performance of PV module/PEM electrolyser system for producing the hydrogen. The available solar potential quality in one candidate site is one of the most important parameters defining the system performance. Fig. 5 shows the daily global solar radiation on horizontal plane in Algeria territory for two different months which represent winter and summer seasons [45]. As it can be seen from this figure, Algeria has a good solar potential which can be contribute to the electricity generation. The solar potential evaluation shows that for the south region, which represents 80% of the territory, the annual solar energies lie between 2350 and 2600 kWh/m2. As the first step, the solar radiation model is developed to estimate the solar radiation on tilted plane. The simulation results obtained are presented in Fig. 6 for two sites of Algiers and Adrar as example. These values of this parameter are used as inputs to the PV module/PEM electrolyser system model.

3.2.

3.3.

Hydrogen production

One of the main targets of this study is to analyze and compare the hydrogen production in different sites located through the country. The amount of hydrogen generated by the system considered in this study is analyzed for seven sites located in different regions. The simulation results are presented at different time scales (hourly, monthly and yearly). Fig. 8 shows the hourly hydrogen produced by the studied system for the sites of Adrar, Tamanrasset (southern region) and Algiers (northern region), given as an example. The simulation results show that the hourly hydrogen production depends on the available solar radiation and its maximum value of 13.8 l is occurred for Tamanrasset in February and March. The production of hydrogen varies greatly throughout the different months and sites. It depends directly on the availability of solar radiation. Fig. 9 shows the monthly variation of the hydrogen amount produced by PV/PEM electrolyser system at different locations.

PV results

The system considered, in this study, is a combined PV module type BP Solar BPSX of 60 W and commercial 50 W StaXX7 h-tec PEM electrolyser comprising a stack of seven PEM cells in series. The technical specifications of PV module are summarized in Table 3. The system modeling is divided in two parts: The first part concerns the PV module. The performance of PV modules is a function of the physical variables of the PV cell material, the solar cell temperature and the solar radiation incident on the PV modules. Fig. 7 shows the simulation results of the currentevoltage characteristics curves of the BPSX 60 PV module. These curves

4 Algiers

Cumulative monthly Hydrogen Production (m3)

Batna Tlemcen Ghardaïa Bechar Adrar

3

Tamanrasset

2

1

0

Jan

Fe

b

M

ar

Ap

r

M

ay

Ju

n

Ju

l

Au

g

Se

p

Oc

t

No

v

De

c

Fig. 9 e Monthly hydrogen production by PVeElectrolyser system. Please cite this article in press as: Ghribi D, et al., Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175

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6000

40

Operating time

4500

30

3000

20

1500

10

0

Hydrogen production (m3/year)

Operating time (hours/year)

Hydrogen production

0 ers Algi

a Batn

r a cen rdai Becha Tlem Gha

Site

ar Adr

sset anra Tam

Fig. 10 e Comparison of annual hydrogen production at different sites.

As can be seen from the figure, the maximum value of the hydrogen production occurs for the southern region. For example, at Adrar, Bechar and Tamanrasset, the amount of cumulative monthly hydrogen production is respectively 2.67, 2.57 and 2.73 m3 in March, while the minimum cumulative monthly hydrogen production value of 1.44 m3 is occurred in January for the site of Ghardaia. For the northern region, it can be noticed that the hydrogen production is not uniform during all year. In July, the monthly hydrogen production at Algiers is twice more important than that of December or than that of January. In addition, Fig. 9 shows that during the winter months, the hydrogen production is smaller than that in other months. In terms of annual production capacity, the amount of the hydrogen produced is plotted in Fig. 10 for different sites considered in this study. As a result, the same system produces different amount of hydrogen at various sites. The sites located in the southern region have the highest annual production of hydrogen compared to the other sites. The estimated amount of cumulative annual hydrogen production is about 26, 27.7, 25.44 and 29 m3/year at respectively Adrar, Bechar, Ghardaia and Tamanrasset. As can be seen from the figure, the yearly hydrogen production ranges from about 20.4 m3 in Algiers (northern region) to 26 m3 in Adrar (southern region). These results indicate that the higher hydrogen amount production can be obtained by choosing sites with high solar radiation. In addition, the simulation results show that the total number of operating hours of the system varies relatively little. It ranges between 4200 and 4350 h/year for all sites considered in this study (Fig. 10).

4.

Conclusion

This paper presents the performance analysis of hydrogen production system consisting of 60 W PV module and a 50 W PEM electrolyser. The objective of this study is to develop

a mathematical model of hydrogen production system and to compare the system performance in terms of hydrogen production at seven locations situated in different regions of Algeria. According to the results, related to the seven sites considered in this study, it can be concluded that:  Algeria has a good solar potential which can be contribute to the electricity generation.  The sites located in the southern region are characterized by a good solar potential compared to other regions.  The amount of hydrogen production depends strongly on the available solar radiation.  In terms of hydrogen production, the southern region of Algeria (Adrar, Ghardaia, Bechar and Tamanrasser) is found to have the relatively highest hydrogen production. The maximum cumulative hydrogen production of 29 m3/year is found at Tamanrasset.  The estimated amount of total annual hydrogen production is found to vary from about 20 m3/year in Algiers (northern region) to 29 m3/year in Tamanrasset (southern region).  The highest hydrogen production is obtained in March for the southern region and July for the northern region. Finally, the existence of Albian water reservoir in the southern region (near the region of Adra) makes that this region as one of the most favorable for hydrogen production by electrolysis.

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Please cite this article in press as: Ghribi D, et al., Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175

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Please cite this article in press as: Ghribi D, et al., Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175