Combine Impact of Power Quality and Operating Temperature on Energy Efficiency of Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolytic Cells

Hydrogen energy storage is a key technology to achieve energy transformation. Energy efficiency is an important factor affecting the application of power to hydrogen (P2H) in power systems. The power quality of the rectifier and the operating temperature affect the energy efficiency of the electrolytic cells. This paper reveals the combine impact of the power quality and operating temperature on the energy efficiency of proton exchange membrane electrolytic cells (PEMEC). Firstly, the P2H PEMEC test platform is built, the model of PEMEC is established base on the test data. Secondly, with the different rectifies, the harmonic distribution and the ripple factors on the energy efficiency of the PEMEC are studied. Finally, compared the energy efficiency of the 6-pulse rectifier, double star rectifier and the current source type rectifier at different operating temperature. The results shows that the better power quality and higher operating temperature positively affects the energy efficiency of the PEMEC.