A Comprehensive Hydrogen Production Rate Control for a PEM Electrolyzer Load Using PID Controller Supplied from a Small-scale Microgrid

This paper proposes a comprehensive voltage control approach for the green hydrogen production flow rate from a Proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer supplied through a small-scale microgrid system. For this purpose, the proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller is utilized. The hydrogen production rate from an electrolyzer depends upon the current supplied to the electrolyzer system. Hence, to regulate the hydrogen production rate, it is essential to regulate the current provided for the electrolysis process while controlling the input voltage to the electrolyzer voltage. This electrolyzer is connected through a DC-DC buck converter and supplied by a small-scale microgrid system. The considered microgrid system is powered by a solar PV and battery storage unit to supply a DC electrolyzer load connected through a buck converter and an AC load connected through a single-phase inverter. The results are checked for variations in irradiance levels of solar and controller performance is observed using various performance indices (PIs). For the study, the solar irradiance corresponds to the Roorkee area situated in Uttarakhand state of India (coordinates 29.8543° <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$N$</tex>, 77.8880° <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$E$</tex>) is considered. The proposed control approach is validated through extensive simulations under MATLAB/Simulink®environment.