Exergoeconomic and environmental impact analyses of a renewable energy based hydrogen production system

Abstract

In this study exergoeconomic and environmental impact analyses through energy exergy and sustainability assessment methods are performed to investigate a hybrid version renewable energy (including wind and solar) based hydrogen and electricity production system. The dead state temperatures considered here are 10 °C 20 °C and 30 °C to undertake a parametric study. An electrolyzer and a metal hydride tank are used for hydrogen production and hydrogen storage respectively. Also the Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) and battery options are utilized for electricity generation and storage respectively. As a result the energy and exergy efficiencies and the sustainability index for the wind turbine are found to be higher than the ones for solar photovoltaic (PV) system. Also the overall exergy efficiency of the system is found to be higher than the corresponding overall energy efficiency. Furthermore for this system it can be concluded that wind turbine with 60 gCO<inf>2</inf>/month is more environmentally-benign than the solar PV system with 75 gCO<inf>2</inf>/month. Finally the total exergoeconomic parameter is found to be 0.26 W/$ when the energy loss is considered while it is 0.41 W/$ when the total of exergy loss and destruction rates are taken into account. Copyright © 2013 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.