Abstract:
Energy crisis and environmental problemshave become the serious issues facing the world today, attributed to more need and use of energy. It not only results in increasing the energy price, but also depleting the limited fossil fuel in the near future. Hydrogen is one of the best alternative energy, because it is the renewable energy which is the compound of water and there is a huge amount of water on our planet. It is a clean energy with high heating value and can be used without releasing any pollution to the environment. This research presents an experimental study on the performance of a hydrogen production system by mean of electrolysis energized by solar energy.
The study investigated and fabricated the proposed system for equipping with the existing solar photovoltaic/thermal collector (PV/T). This collector field has effective area about 100 m2 and generates electricity about 300 VDC. A heat exchanger is installed inside the electrolysis reactor, to control the electrolyte solution temperature at the set point temperature using the hot water from PV/T system. The tests were conducted to determine the best solution condition and temperature of electrolyte for the proposed hydrogen production system.
The study results show that among the available solution used in this study, sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is the best electrolyte compared to the others. Moreover, it is fruitfully available in the market and cheap. The electrolyte concentration of 0.1 moles per liter outperforms with the highest hydrogen production rate. Regarding the electrolyte temperature, the study results show that hydrogen production rate is directly proportion to the electrolyte temperature. It can be concluded that the important parameters for the proposed system are electric power derived from solar PV/T, solution substance and temperature of electrolyte.