Review and expectation of modeling methods research on alkaline electrolyzer for hydrogen production

Alkaline water electrolysis (AWE) has emerged as the mainstream choice for large-scale green hydrogen production owing to its technological maturity and economic viability. However, alkaline electrolyzers (AELs), as the core equipment of hydrogen production systems, suffer from inherent technical limitations, including slow dynamic response, limited operating range, and high energy consumption, which are further exacerbated by the intermittency and fluctuation of renewable energy sources. Modeling and simulation offer an effective approach to characterizing the operational behavior of AELs, performance optimization, control design, and fault diagnosis. Unlike previous reviews that primarily focus on physical fields, this paper places greater emphasis on modeling methods. By constructing a structured framework of modeling and simulation requirements across multiple geometric levels and time scales, this paper systematically analyzes the research status, applicable scopes, and existing limitations of mainstream modeling approaches, including empirical modeling, mechanism-based modeling, equivalent circuit modeling, and data-driven modeling. Finally, the development trends of AEL modeling and simulation are highlighted, including cross-scale parameter transfer, development of dynamic modeling and simulation capabilities, "Morphology-Electricity-State" multi-dimensional information fusion and reconstruction, and the application of digital twin technology. This review is expected to provide valuable guidance for AEL model selection and offer insights into the future development of modeling and simulation technologies.