Numerical Study of Solar Hydrogen Production System for Rural Areas Employing TRNSYS

Abstract

In this study, solar heating water system and hydrogen production were modeled and simulated by using System Simulation Software TRNSYS. What's more the system was optimized by TRNSYS/GenOpt. The electricity grid was the auxiliary electrical energy for the system. Hot water was generated by solar collector and then transported to a hold-up vessel with supplementary heat source. Photovoltaic (PV) panels generated electricity which was used to product hydrogen by electrolyzing water. Alkaline Fuel Cell used the hydrogen to generate electrical energy for the supplementary heating source of hold-up vessel. The systems for north-China rural areas in Hebei Province were designed and the hourly system operating characteristic using the optimum volume of vessel was investigated. According to the experimental hot water load of one farmhouse, the hourly and annual electrolytic hydrogen volume, the hourly electrical energy generated by photovoltaic panels, the energy conversion characteristic of the system, the hourly pressure in the storage tank of hydrogen were studied by TRNSYS. According to the simulation results, the most covering rate of solar energy varied from 20% appearing in January to 80% appearing in August.