Influence of operation parameters in the modeling of alkaline water electrolyzers for hydrogen production

• A model for an electrolyzer was developed taking as reference Ulleberg's equation.
• Model takes into account electrolyte concentration and electrode/diaphragm distance.
• The simulated results were compared with the experimental data.
• The proposed model predicts interaction with renewable energies successfully.
• Sensitivity analysis was used to quantify the influence of the variables considered.

In order to improve the production of environmental friendly hydrogen, new advanced alkaline electrolyzers must be designed to optimize their combination with renewable energies. In pursuing this goal, modeling of alkaline electrolyzers becomes a powerful design tool. In this paper is presented a mathematical model that describes the behavior of an alkaline electrolysis cell. Unlike most of the existing models in literature, the proposed model simulates the influence of both electrode/diaphragm distance and electrolyte concentration in regular operation. The role of these aspects is crucial when designing alkaline electrolyzers since the process efficiency is found to be very sensitive to them. The computations done with the model presented here were validated with in situ experimental data, reporting a great accuracy: the maximum error was around 1% from all polarization curves studied. Combination with renewable energies was also studied by introducing a solar PV profile and the error reported never exceeds 3%. The influence of the considered variables (temperature, electrode/diaphragm distance and electrolyte concentration) was quantified using sensitivity analysis.

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