Development of Water Electrolysis System for Hydrogen Production as a Renewable Source of Energy

Hydrogen is an environmental-friendly energy carrier that is separated from water through electrolysis. Therefore, it has become necessary to improve hydrogen productivity at the lowest costs. To achieve that, a simplified unit of water electrolysis was developed and evaluated. Three type of water, (tap water add 10%wt KOH, sea water, sea water add 10%wt KOH) were used, three Surface area of the electrodes (250, 350 and 450 cm2) and distance between electrode (1, 2 and 3mm) were also investigated. Energy requirement, produced energy and costs were determined. The obtained results indicate that the produced energy for hydrogen production increases with increasing operating time and increases with an increase in the surface area of the electrodes, reaching the highest value at water type of (10%wt KOH). The total costs of hydrogen production unit decreases with an increase in the Surface area of the electrodes. The energy produced increases with an increase in the surface area of the electrodes, to be 188W h and the total costs of hydrogen production unit 0.3 L.E L-1. The results show that several improved electrolyzer operating strategies can be identified with the developed system simulation model. The modelling outcomes of this system were performed using MATLAB code. The proposed model can predict the performance of hydrogen production system by electrolysis and calculating costs, energy consumed, energy produced, and system operating efficiency.