Caracterização de um eletrolisador bipolar para produção de hidrogênio visando o uso de painéis fotovoltaicos como fonte de energia.

Abstract

Hydrogen emerges as a clean renewable energy source that will replace fossil fuels. In this way, this work studies the performance of a bipolar electrolyser to produce hydrogen from the water electrolysis, using conventional electricity and photovoltaic solar energy. The electrolyser is constituted of 47 cells working with a KOH solution electrolyte. First, the electrolyser was tested with conventional electricity and showed its best production at a current of 42.5 A and a tension of 96.6 V. This corresponds to a power of 4.10 kW with a hydrogen flow rate of 0.763 m3/h, meaning a energy consumption of 5.67 kWh/m3 which would need 64 photovoltaic panels at a maximum flow rate of 0.012 m3/h.panel. In the second part, the electrolyser is tested with several configurations of photovoltaic panels. With 6 panels connected in series, a minimum hydrogen production is obtained with a tension of 82.8 V and a current of 1,1 A. A maximum hydrogen production of 0,068 m3/h is reached with a solar configuration of 15 panels in series, giving a tension of 90.0 V and a current of 4.49 A.