Electrical Energy-Based Hydrogen Production via PEM Water Electrolysis for Sustainable Energy

From the sustainability point of view for energy affecting low environmental impacts, hydrogen is one of the choices as an energy carrier produced via water electrolysis, which is a good method to store solar energy. Hydrogen can be stored, transported, and consumed to generate electricity using fuel cells without generating harmful byproducts. In this research, electricity generated via photovoltaic cell was converted to hydrogen by electrochemical conversion using a proton exchange membrane (PEM) water electrolyzer. The effects of solar irradiance on hydrogen production and electrolysis efficiency were investigated to estimate the hydrogen production for residential applications. The hydrogen production increased as the solar irradiance increased. In the studied solar irradiance range, the average efficiency of electrolysis cells and the average faradaic efficiency were about 86.7% and 92.8%, respectively. The 11.5% of solar-to-hydrogen (STH) efficiency for daily solar irradiance to produce hydrogen was obtained and used for evaluating monthly hydrogen energy production. The range of monthly solar energy between 4.69 and 5.80 kWh/m ² -day can generate the hydrogen energy of 0.54 and 0.66 kWh/m ² -day, respectively. The suitable areas of PV and electrolyzer were estimated to produce hydrogen equivalent to the average energy consumption for residences in Thai households.