A small scale education experiment kit with wind generator-PEM electrolyser system and modelling

Authors: ÖZCAN ATLAM

Abstract: A small scale experiment wind energy kit is prepared in order to introduce renewable energy applications. The kit consists of a wind turbine with horizontal axis, a direct current (dc) motor as generator and variable wind excitation system. Performance characteristics of the wind system are defined for different wind speeds. It is found that at the highest 10 m/s wind excitation, the maximum turbine mechanical power from wind is about 0.30 W at 5.3 V., maximum output power of the generator is about 0.18 W and maximum electrical efficiency is about 7% at 4.27 V., wind turbine power coefficients C_p are 12.53% under maximum turbine mechanical power, 12.06 % under maximum electrical efficiency cases. Also mechanical frictional losses of system are considered and added to analysis. The wind kit is also operated with a proton exchange membrane (PEM) type electrolyser for hydrogen production. The outputs of generator, inputs of PEM electrolyser and its rate of hydrogen formation characteristic are measured and modelled separately. Overall system is defined in MATLAB/Simulink. Operating points of PEM electrolyser on wind system kit are predicted by modelling. Relative errors are about 1-4% for voltage, 0.6-3% for current at 5.7-10 m/s wind interval. The rate of hydrogen production of wind generator-PEM electrolyser system is analyzed with respect to input wind speeds. The rate of hydrogen formation of the system is 0.4 ml/min at 10 m/s wind speed. The system kit has small scale, low performance and inexpensive tools, but it can be used not only for education but also for research tests about similar systems. Approaches in the study can be applied to systems with larger and special devices to carry out their performance tests.

Keywords: Wind generator, hydrogen, PEM electrolyser.

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