Hydrogen Production from an Alkali Electrolyzer Operating with Egypt Natural Resources

Mohamed H. Shedid^*, S. Elshokary

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Mattaria, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt.

DOI: 10.4236/sgre.2015.61002                

Abstract

Egypt is bordered by coastal sea2450 km, while incident solar radiation is in the order of magnitudes of 1900-2200 W/m² in that area of the world. The present work is aimed to assess the hydrogen production from the solar-hydrogen system composed of photovoltaic cell motivated by solar energy and supplies electricity to alkali electrolyzer. The electrolyzer uses sea and Nile water as electrolytes. Indoor tests are done to identify the optimum concentration ratio of the sea water to produce hydrogen. Experimental results showed that stand-alone sea water gives a higher production rate. The results of the outdoor tests revealed the need for about seven units of electrolyzer working with the sea water to produce the same amount of hydrogen that KOH solution electrolyte would provide. However, the efficiency of solar-hydrogen units working with the sea water gives a lower constant efficiency of about 0.13%, followed by Photovoltaic/electrolyzer unit using Nile water of approximately 0.005%. The KOH solution electrolyte provides an efficiency of approximately 8% at solar noon. The sea water is recommended to be used instead of KOH solution in all coming electrolyzers.

Keywords

Alkali Electrolyzer, Hydrogen Production, Sea Water, Photovoltaic, Egypt Climate, Egypt Resources

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	McDonall, W. and Eames, M. (2006) Forecast, Scenarios, Visions, Backcasts and Roadmaps to the Hydrogen Economy: A Review of the Hydrogen Futures Literature. Energy Policy, 34, 1236-1250. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2005.12.006
[2]	Envestra Limited (2010) About Natural Gas. http://www.natural-gas.com.au/about/references.html
[3]	ForestBioEnergy (2010) Sustainable Forestry for Bioenergy and Biobased Products. Energy Basics. Fact Sheet 5.8.
[4]	Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) (2014) Geographical Location. http://www.eip.gov.eg/AboutEgypt/GeoInfo.aspx
[5]	Turner, J.A. (2004) Sustainable Hydrogen Production. Science, 305, 972-974.
[6]	Zavieh, A.H. (2011) Optimization and Modeling of Electrode Structure and Composition for Novel PEM Water Electrolyser MEAs. Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway.
[7]	Agbossou, K., Kolhe, M., Hamelin, J. and Bose, T.K. (2004) Performance of a Stand-Alone Renewable Energy System Based on Energy Storage as Hydrogen. IEEE Transactions on Energy Conversion, 19, 633-640.
[8]	Guo, W.L., Li, L., Li, L.L., Tian, S., Liu, S.L. and Wu, Y.P. (2011) Hydrogen Production via Electrolysis of Aqueous Formic Acid Solutions. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 38, 9415-9419. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2011.04.127
[9]	Pregger, T., Graf, D., Krewitt, W., Sattler, C., Roeb, M. and Moller, S. (2009) Prospects of Solar Thermal Hydrogen Production Processes. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 34, 4256-4267. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2009.03.025
[10]	Charvin, P., Stéphane, A., Florent, L. and Gilles, F. (2008) Analysis of Solar Chemical Processes for Hydrogen Production from Water Splitting Thermochemical Cycles. Energy Conversion and Management, 49, 1547-1556. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2007.12.011
[11]	Santarelli, M. and Macagno, S. (2004) A Thermoeconomic Analysis of a PV-Hydrogen System Feeding the Energy Requests of a Residential Building in an Isolated Valley of the Alps. Energy Conversion and Management, 45, 427451. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0196-8904(03)00156-0
[12]	Ahmad, G.E. and Shenawy, E.T.E. (2006) Optimized Photovoltaic System for Hydrogen Production. Renewable Energy, 31, 1043-1054. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2005.05.018
[13]	El Shenawy, E.T. and Hamdy, H. (2012) Annual Performance of a Photovoltaic Hydrogen Electrolyzer System in Egypt. The Pacific Rim Energy and Sustainability Congress, Hiroshima, 6-9 August 2012.
[14]	Wang, Z., Roberts, R.R., Naterer, G.F. and Gabriel, K.S. (2012) Comparison of Thermochemical, Electrolytic, Photoelectrolytic and Photochemical Solar-to-Hydrogen Production Technologies. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 30, 1-15.
[15]	Ramadan, A., El-Shenawy, E., Dayem, A.A. and Eid, S.A. (2008) Optimization of PV-Hydrogen Electrolyzes System. 3rd International Conference on Engineering Science & Technology, Cairo.
[16]	Chennouf, N., Settou, N., Negrou, B., Bouziane, K. and Dokkar, B. (2012) Experimental Study of Solar Hydrogen Production Performance by Water Electrolysis in the South of Algeria. Energy Procedia, 18, 1280-1288. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2012.05.145
[17]	See, D.M. and White, R.E. (1997) Temperature and Concentration Dependence of the Specific Conductivity of Concentrated Solutions of Potassium Hydroxide. Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data, 42, 1266-1268. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/je970140x
[18]	Fatouh, M., Shedid, M.H. and Elshokary, S. (2013) Effect of Operating and Geometric Parameters on Hydrogen Production from an Alkali Electrolyzer. International Journal on Power Engineering and Energy (IJPEE), 4, 395-399.
[19]	Ibrahim, A. (2011) Analysis of Electrical Characteristics of Photovoltaic Single Crystal Silicon Solar Cells at Outdoor Measurements. Smart Grid and Renewable Energy, 2, 169-175. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/sgre.2011.22020
[20]	Da Silva, E.P., Marin Neto, A.J., Ferreira, P.F.P., Camargo, J.C., Apolinário, F.R. and Pinto, C.S. (2005) Analysis of Hydrogen Production from Combined Photovoltaics, Wind Energy and Secondary Hydroelectricity Supply in Brazil. Solar Energy, 78, 670-677. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.solener.2004.10.011
[21]	Zeng, K. and Zhang, D. (2010) Recent Progress in Alkaline Water Electrolysis for Hydrogen Production and Applications. Progress in Energy and Combustion Science, 36, 307-326.
[22]	Lenntech (2014) Composition of Seawater. http://www.lenntech.com/composition-seawater.htm