Optimization and integration of hybrid renewable energy hydrogen fuel cell energy systems - A critical review

This paper reviews approaches for integrating hydrogen energy technology into hybrid energy systems, emphasising electricity generation using a hydrogen fuel cell. Integration of energy storage, sizing methodologies, energy flow management and their associated optimization algorithms and software implementation are addressed. Few published case studies go beyond technical considerations. This reality is discussed in the light of available software packages. A four-dimensional multi-objective meta-heuristic function is proposed with weighting of technical, economic, environmental and socio-political factors to suit the design goals for the energy system.