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Solar hydrogen power system for isolated passive house

Article  in  International Journal of Hydrogen Energy · October 2015

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2015.09.134

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Solar hydrogen power system for isolated passive

house

Miri Motalleb, Ankica Ðuki
c*, Mihajlo Firak

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Naval Architecture, University of Zagreb, Ivana Luci
ca 5, 10000 Zagreb,
Croatia

article info abstract

Article history: Solar hydrogen power system for supplying isolated passive house with utility power en-
Received 20 July 2015 ergy and hydrogen fuel for personal transport has been established and discussed.
Received in revised form Commercially available components such as photovoltaic module, proton exchange
14 September 2015 membrane fuel cell stack and electrolyzer stack were acquired. Appropriate control logic
Accepted 15 September 2015 was developed. MATLAB/Simulink software has been used to simulate control logic and
Available online 31 October 2015 system components. The proof of the control logic and components models has been
performed by simulations predefined scenarios, i.e. with and without solar irradiance and
Keywords: with given energy demands by the user. All of that can be used as valuable tool for any
Solar energy autonomous solar hydrogen system design of passive house.
Passive house Copyright © 2015, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights
Hydrogen reserved.
PEM fuel cell
Alkaline electrolyzer
Mathematical modeling

electricity by PV systems. These two systems are usually

Introduction
Renewable energy sources (RES) are attracting high attention
as an alternative source of energy. This is not only due to the
diminishing fossil fuel sources, but also due to environmental
pollution and global warming. In the long run, there will be no
alternative to an optimized tapping of the potentials of RES.
Especially, the utilization of solar energy through photovoltaic
(PV) cells connected into PV modules and solar thermal power
plants play a key role. Isolated (not connected to electric grid)
households energy usage should be first of all based on energy
saving, i.e. passive house concept [1] should be deployed. The
rest energy demand for house heating and cooling should be
accomplished by solar thermal systems and demand for
physically nondependent of each other, but they are con-
nected by various heat flows in the passive house. For
example, electrical losses are output heat flows from appli-
ances, but input heat load for cooling system or additional
heat flow that helps to heat the house. Through the passive
house concept a considerable energy savings compared to the
existing one can be obtained. This comparison is given
in Fig. 1.
A small heating load was roughly equivalent with an
annual space heat requirement of 15 kW h m
2. Hence, pas-
sive houses need about 85% less space heat than new build-
ings designed to the various national buildings in Europe. The
energy saving potential for a single residence goes together
with carbon dioxide (CO2) emission reductions of about 50%e

* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ385 1 6168 218.

E-mail address: ankica.djukic@fsb.hr (A. Ðukic
).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2015.09.134
0360-3199/Copyright © 2015, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
16002 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 0 ( 2 0 1 5 ) 1 6 0 0 1 e1 6 0 0 9
Fig. 1 e Comparison of energy consumption of: passive
house vs. other buildings [1].
65%. So if we want to design autonomous solar hydrogen
power system, for the conventional system it would be at least
two times larger for PV array, fuel cell stack, electrolyzer stack
and all other relevant components. The main control prob-
lems arise due to large variances of PV cells output power
under different solar irradiance levels [2e5]. To overcome this
problem, PV power plants used to be integrated with other
power sources or storage systems such as battery, and/or
hydrogen based system (electrolyzer, hydrogen storage and
fuel cell). These devices must store excess solar energy and
subsequently deliver power at the desired time and rate. The
energy storage device that is most commonly used with PV
systems today is the battery, but hydrogen based technology
has already become highly competitive. Under assumption of
increased part of using solar energy in entire energy con-
sumption and developing of technology of hydrogen produc-
tion and utilization, it is necessary to conceive solar hydrogen
autonomous system for supplying isolated household with
electric power and energy for personal transport (ASVS þ T)
[6e8]. To design efficient passive house many factors need to
be taken into account, as the most important one is climate in
the selected area [9,10]. In this work it is assumed solar
hydrogen system to cover household electricity load and to
ensure enough hydrogen as fuel for personal transport (typi-
cally an pick up track). It is consisted of the PV modules, bat-
teries, electrolyzer stack, hydrogen storage, hydrogen
compressor and controller. As energy storage means, battery
and compressed hydrogen gas storage (including electrolyzer
and fuel cell) have both advantages and disadvantages that
were not discussed here. But the fact that electrolyzer, fuel cell
and controller need to have electricity source to start, de-
mands battery inclusion as a sine qua non. In this system,
electricity generated in the PV modules is sent to battery and
excess electricity to the electrolyzer stack to produce
hydrogen. Hydrogen is stored to be utilized in stationary
Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack for house-
hold electricity load demand and to be further compressed
and stored in storage tank of the hydrogen powered personal
vehicle when required. The heat that is produced by fuel cell
and electrolyzer stack can be used appropriately in heat and
mass flow management system of the household [11e14] but
that use was not considered here. Power system of this
complexity obviously needs to be automatic controlled. Due to
that, appropriate control logic has been developed.
Methodology and solution strategy
The major components of supposed power system are PV
modules, batteries, an electrolyzer stack, hydrogen storage, a
PEM fuel cell stack, household electricity load, hydrogen
compressor and transport vehicle hydrogen supply, i.e. addi-
tional hydrogen needed. A control system is employed to
monitor the state of the system, control power and hydrogen
flows, except the hydrogen flow to compressor during vehicle
hydrogen storage filling what is controlled manually. That is
the reason why in further text mathematical model of the
compressor is described but not used. An excess of solar en-
ergy can be used in electrolyzer stack for hydrogen produc-
tion. Produced hydrogen is stored into the storage tank for
subsequent use in PEM fuel cell stack. The household has
electrical appliances, lights and Direct Current (DC) motors.
All of that are supposed to be as DC loads. DC loads are then
treated as Ohmic resistance that affects voltage and current of
the PV modules, batteries and fuel cell stack. The whole power
system is controlled by automatic control provided by
controller defined by control logic. The power system is con-
sisted of commercially available components: PV modules
[15], battery [16] and fuel cell stack [17]. The electrolyzer stack
was produced only once for research purpose from Hystat
company and already published data were used in this work
[18]. This allows a real input data to be used in simulation. To
define and simulate solar hydrogen generation subsystem
some results from Refs. [5,7,19e21] have been used. Such one
model with real input data can produce real outputs according
to the chosen scenario. Components for the house power
system and computer modeling and simulation were devel-
oped in MATLAB/Simulink computer code. Simulation was
performed for each component separately to check its model
correctness and all together with control logic (control system
or simply controller) included, using predefined solar irradi-
ance and electrical load time profiles. It should be emphasized
that the scope of this work is to present developed model, but
not its validation in comparison with real measurement data
during certain living period in a passive house.
Power system components models
PV module
The model of a PV module consisted of one string of 36 cells in
series was presented by mathematical model in equation (1).

 
ðUPV þ IPV Rs Þ
IPV ¼ Iph
Is ðexp
1 (1)
ðmUt Þ


 
ðUPV þ IPV Rs Þ
f ðIPV Þ ¼ Iph
Is exp
1
IPV ¼ 0 (2)
ðmUt Þ
where:
IPV/A is PV module operating current; Iph/A is photo cur-
rent; Is/A is saturation dark current; UPV/V is PV module
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 0 ( 2 0 1 5 ) 1 6 0 0 1 e1 6 0 0 9 16003

operating voltage; Rs/U is series resistance; m is ideality factor; According to the ideal gas law, the pressure p of gas storage
Ut/V is thermal voltage. can be calculated according to the equations (4) and (5).
In order to find the needed UI relationship, a systematic RT
pH2 ¼ nst (4)
way for obtaining the best possible curve fit was developed VH2
according to the PV module UI characteristic. The PV module where:
is represented with one block in Simulink scheme given Z
1  
in Fig. 2. nst ¼ IEly
IFC dt (5)
2F

Electrolyzer Compressibility factor for hydrogen is

In this work semi-commercial electrolyzer stack has been Z(p) ¼ 0.99704 þ 6.4149  10
9p. Then mathematical model
selected according to the technical data as follows: max H2 was transformed as it is given in equation (6).
production ¼ 1 Nm3/h; operating temperature ¼ 20e70  C; dp ZðpÞRg T
operating pressure ¼ 25 bar; electrolyzer stack operating ¼ ðmin
mout Þ (6)
dt V
voltage (at 25 bar) ¼ 40 V; electrolyzer stack operating electric
For the purpose of the simulation there was no need for
current (at 25 bar) ¼ 120 A; number of electrolyzer cells in
selection of commercial available storage. It was supposed
stack ¼ 22; surface area ¼ 300 cm2. Simulation of an electrolyzer
maximum storage pressure of 25 bar because it was roughly
[22] has been conducted according to the mathematical model
tuned with chosen electrolyzer stack. Simulink model of
given in equation (3).
hydrogen storage was given in Fig. 2.

 
 
IEly IEly
UEly ¼ nc Urev þ r þ slog t þ1 (3) Compressor
Ae Ae
Compressor should compress hydrogen from hydrogen stor-
where: age (25 bar) directly to vehicles hydrogen storage (350 bar). A
UEly/V is electrolyzer operating voltage; Urev/V is reversible compressor model was mainly based on the two stages of
voltage; r/U m2 is Ohmic resistance of electrolyte; s and t are polytropic compression process with intercooling. The total
coefficients for overvoltage on electrodes; Ae/m2 is active area compressor work Wcomp required for this process to simulate
of electrode; IEly/A is electrolyzer operating current; nc is the PVH2 system is given in equation (7).
number of electrolyzer cells in a stack. !
WI þ WII
Coefficients r, s and t are the functions of temperature. Wcomp ¼ ngas (7)
hcomp
Simulink model of an electrolyzer was given in Fig. 2. Type of
electrolyzer was chosen to be an alkaline because of its high where:
efficiency, high purity of produced hydrogen, a long term ! !
" a
1 # " a
1 #
durability, a wide range of applications and low costs,


aRT1 px a aRT1 p2 a
respectively. WI ¼ 1
; WII ¼ 1

a
1 p1 a
1 px

Hydrogen storage
Wcomp/W is total compressor work; ngas/mol s
1 is gas flow;
The hydrogen storage models were based on either the ideal
Wl/J mol
1 and Wll/J mol
1 are polytropic work; hcomp/% is
gas law or Van der Waals equation of state for real gases.
compressor efficiency.

Fig. 2 e Simulink model of PV module; Simulink model of an electrolyzer; Simulink model of a hydrogen storage; Simulink
model of the compressor; Fuel cell model inputeoutput signals; Simulink model of the battery; Simulink model of the load.
16004 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 0 ( 2 0 1 5 ) 1 6 0 0 1 e1 6 0 0 9

Because the process of refueling hydrogen storage in the
vehicle was manually controlled (this was not considered by
controller simulated in Simulink), compressor model in Fig. 2
was not included in the power system simulation.
Fuel cell
Power data of selected PEM fuel cell stack are as follows:
electrical rated power ¼ 2.4 kW (2  1.2 kW); maximum elec-
tric power ¼ 3 kW (2  1.5 kW); open circuit voltage ¼ 2  ca.
48 V; rated electric current ¼ 45 A; rated electric voltage ¼ 26 V;
maximum electric current per stack ¼ 50 A; hydrogen con-
sumption at rated electric power ¼ <18.5 SLPM.
In order to model fuel cell stack there were calculated
different voltage losses and consequently polarization curve.
The first step in creating the polarization curve was to calcu-
late the Nernst voltage given in equation (8).
The Nernst voltage can be calculated using the following
equation:
! The control strategy includes hydrogen state of the charge
Gf ;liq RT PH2O
UNerst ¼
ln 1=2
(8)
2F 2F PH2 PO2
where:
Gf,liq/228,170 J mol
1 is Gibbs free energy of hydrogen in
liquid state; Tk/K is temperature; i/A cm
2 is current density.
For the purpose of the model simplicity at this level,
theoretical value of UNernst ¼ 1.23 V was assumed. Then the
fuel cell voltage was calculated by following equation:
UFC ¼ UNerst
ðEAct þ EOhmic þ EConc Þ
The losses were composed of activation, concentration and
Ohmic losses. Activation losses were given in the equation (10).
DEAct ¼ a þ blogðiÞ
where:
RT RT
a ¼
2:3 logi0 ; b ¼
aF aF
io ¼ 3  10
6 A cm
2 is exchange current density; a ¼ 1 is
transfer coefficient.
Ohmic losses were given according to the equation (11).
Simulink models of PV module, an electrolyzer, H2 storage,
compressor, PEM fuel cell and overall solar hydrogen power
system are given in Fig. 2. PEM fuel cell was chosen because of
its high efficiency and low operation temperature. According
to the performed calculations within selection process of the
system components it proved to be the most cost-effective as
well.
Power system components models
The main objective of the control strategy is to utilize
excess RES in system to charge short-term and/or long-term
energy storage. And opposite, if there is deficit of RES
the systems control strategy decides whether to use long-
term or short-term energy storage to supply the load. In
order to fulfill these scenarios, the state of system must be
known all the time. A scheme of control system is given
in Fig. 3.
(SOC), battery SOC, in addition, weather/load prediction and
actual power balance in system could be taken into account.
The electric power produced by the PV modules is managed
by a control of electrical part of power system. It sends the
power to the different components of the system following a
predefined priority order. The power demand of the user has
the first priority (batteries). The excesses of power are sent to
the electrolyzer stack to produce hydrogen (storage). Actu-
ally all power systems must include a control strategy that
(9)
describes the interactions between its components. Also
controller has been checked using three scenarios. In the first
scenario it was considered the daily PV system operation to
supply electricity to an electrolyzer stack to produce
(10) hydrogen while other components were not working. In the
second scenario night period when PV system and an elec-
trolyzer stack are not in function, storage had enough
hydrogen to supply PEM fuel cell stack and battery SOC is in
30% level for critical situation. In the third scenario only
battery was running and operating to meet the load Other
parts of the system were not in function.

DEOhm ¼ IRi (11)

Results and discussion
where:
i/A cm
2 is current density; Ri/U cm2 is total cell internal For the purpose of component models verification each
resistance that includes ionic, electronic and contact component model was simulated in Simulink using proper
resistance. input function. Than all models were connected (including
Typical value for Ri is between 0.1 and 0.2 U cm2 (in our controller), and two input functions were derived from real
model Ri ¼ 0.15). data: solar irradiance profile and load time function (Fig. 7).
And concentration polarization: Here are presented only one fuel cell model simulation (in

 the real situation two Ballards Nexa stacks have been used,
RT iL
DEConc ¼ ln (12) each stack consisted of 47 in serial connected cells), and
nF iL
i
controller model simulation.
where:
i/A cm
2 is current density; iL ¼ 1.6 A cm
2 is limiting Components models functioning (proof)
current density; F ¼ 96,500 C is Faraday's constant.
And power output: Fuel cell
Simulation results of PEM fuel cell include current and power
PFC ¼ UFC IFC Ae (13)
density, voltage, efficiency and overall losses. Main types of
where: losses in the fuel cell have been caused by different factors.
IFC/A is fuel cell operating current. These results were graphically given in Figs. 4 and 5.
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 0 ( 2 0 1 5 ) 1 6 0 0 1 e1 6 0 0 9 16005

Fuel cell
PV System
Control System

Electrical
Load

Mannual control

Electrolyzer
Car

Battery

H2
H2

Control line

From Sensors
H2
Storage
Electricity flow

Hydrogen flow

Fig. 3 e Scheme of solar hydrogen control system.

The nature of fuel cell polarization curve can help in
identification of particular problems.
Polarization curve and efficiency were given for a single
cell. There are additional power losses and resulting efficiency
loss due to auxiliary components in the fuel cell stack (fans,
pumps, relays and controllers).
H2 storage tank
In order to see the result of hydrogen storage simulation the
flow rate of hydrogen is much higher than the real as well as
input data in storage model just to show whether simulation
model worked properly.

Fig. 4 e Current density vs. ohmic, concentration and Fig. 5 e Current density vs. potential losses related to
activation losses in fuel cell. polarization curve.
16006 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 0 ( 2 0 1 5 ) 1 6 0 0 1 e1 6 0 0 9

consumption. Real solar irradiance time profile was approxi-

mated by simplified one as given in Fig. 7a and real household
electrical load time profile as well given in Fig. 7b. Results of
investigated scenarios are given in Fig. 8.

Period 0 am e 6 am
During this time period of the day very small electricity con-
sumption existed (0.001) that is quite visible on the curve of
Electricity consumption; solar irradiance did not exist. This is
visible on curve of Solar irradiance. During this period pressure
in the hydrogen storage was equal to 4 bar. This is visible on
the curve of Hydrogen storage tank pressure and shows that fuel
cell stack did not produce electricity. Battery covered small
electricity consumption because it had higher priority than
Fig. 6 e Simulation results of H2 storage. fuel cell stack. SOC of the battery slightly dropped that is
visible in the curve of SOC battery.
As it can be seen from Fig. 6 it was operating as expected.
That is why the pressure of the storage tank was increased Period 6 am e 7 am
very fast to the maximum level. Electricity consumption sharply jumped from 0.001 to 0.1 and
during period of 1 h had the constant value (0.1). At the same
time solar irradiance started to rise. Because of higher priority
Functioning control system embedded in the power system
battery supplied the requested larger amount of energy. Due
(proof)
to that curve of SOC battery sharply dropped in this period. At
the same time electrolyzer stack started to produce hydrogen
The most important values of the solar hydrogen power sys-
that was stored in hydrogen storage. Hydrogen pressure
tem are: PV modules surface, battery and hydrogen storage
started to rise as it can be seen from the curve of Hydrogen
size. Solar energy is directly converted into electrical energy
storage pressure.
through PV modules. These modules originally have 36 cells in
series. Simulations were performed with the following sizes:
Period 7 am e 4 pm
number of PV modules was 51; battery capacity was 7751.9 A s;
Electricity consumption sharply dropped at 7 am and reached
the volume of hydrogen storage was 0.1 m3. Rather small
the constant value (0.02). During this period solar irradiance
storage volume enables short simulation time. Simulated time
continued to rise up to 1000 W m
2 at 12 pm and then grad-
of 24 h was chosen only for components models and simula-
ually decreased to 0 W m
2 at 6 pm. Hydrogen pressure
tion procedure verification. Generally speaking, user should
continued to rise and when it reached storage limit of 30 bar it
adjust simulated time and step size to available computer
stayed constant. Battery SOC continued to gradually decrease
speed and memory. The initial conditions also influence the
up to the value of 30% what was allowable minimum. Within
results of the simulation. Their values are as follows: battery
this period there was an interesting situation between 12.5 pm
SOC was 1.00 (100%); hydrogen storage pressure was 4 bar. In
and 16 pm related to battery charging and discharging and
order to prove the controller system function, different sce-
operation of electrolyzer stack at the same time as the fuel cell
narios have been performed. The function of controller sys-
stack (refueling and emptying of the hydrogen storage).
tem was to drive all three scenarios without manual
intervention during simulation. Therefore, the requirements
Period 6 pm e 10 pm
of the scenario should be consistent with the strategy and the
Electricity consumption rised by step of 0.2 what was quite
internal logic controllers. The scenarios have been defined
high consumption; battery was between 30 and 40% SOC; fuel
due to operating status of individual system elements and
cell stack used hydrogen; storage pressure dropped gradually
external conditions such as solar irradiance and energy

Fig. 7 e a) Hourly solar irradiance in island of Hvar; b) Equivalent DC electric load power profile for specified day.
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 0 ( 2 0 1 5 ) 1 6 0 0 1 e1 6 0 0 9 16007

Fig. 8 e Simulation results due to the selected scenarios.

especially because there was not more hydrogen production, i.

e. there was not solar irradiance.

Period 10 pm e 12 pm
Again electricity consumption was very small (0.001); battery
was empty; electrolyzer stack didn't work, but fuel cell stack Table 1 e Summary of energy system in the passive
worked and draw only very small hydrogen quantity resulted house.
with extremely slow drop of hydrogen pressure. Components and quantities Dimension Value
Space heating system
Summary of household energy system Total heating load kWh per year 4395.7
In Table 1 it is given summary of energy system used in the Solar collectors area m2 7
presented passive house. In term of definition passive house is Solar thermal collectors area m2 3
Water tank volume m3 0.750
a concept for ultra-low energy building that require little en-
Space cooling system
ergy for space heating or cooling and save energy up to 90%
Type of system: solar desiccant cooling
compared with typical building and over 75% compared with Total cooling load kWh per year 5204.1
average new buildings. It requires very little energy to achieve Cooling power capacity kW 10
a comfortable temperature. A building based on this concept Power of motor for desiccant wheel kW 0.12
is energy efficient, comfortable, sustainable and environ- Power of cooling power pump kW 0.3
mental friendly at the same time. Ventilation rate of conditioned space m3/h 500
Power system
In the table above are listed all required parameters of en-
Photovoltaic array total area m2 46.94
ergy system needed for design of presented passive house, Number of modules pcs 51
according to climate conditions at the island Hvar. The results Nominal power of module kW 0.12
presented in this table give their contribution to the future work Total power of PV array kW 6.12
of other researchers as well whose work whether it is based on Fuel cell stack
designing a particular energy system or passive house in its all. Installed power of fuel cell stack kW 2.4
Maximum hydrogen consumption SLPM* 36
Maximum water production l/h 1.6
Maximum heat production kW 4.8
Conclusion Maximum fuel cell stack % 50
system efficiency
This work presents part of Matlab/Simulink based simulation Electrolyzer stack
tool required for energy system design of passive house and Power of electrolyzer stack kW 5
Number of electrolyzer cells in stack pcs 22
the need for personal transport of its residents, based on using
Rate of hydrogen production Nm3/h 1
solar energy and hydrogen entirely. Furthermore, it presented
Overall energy consumption kWh/Nm3 H2 4.9
mathematical model of the solar hydrogen power system to Surface area cm2 300
provide electricity load for grid disconnected passive house
*SLPM e standard litter per minute.
consisting of PV modules, battery, electrolyzer, hydrogen
16008 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y 4 0 ( 2 0 1 5 ) 1 6 0 0 1 e1 6 0 0 9

storage, fuel cell and controller. The model has been tested WI, WII Polytropic work, J mol
1
using specific selected commercial components. It was Z (p) Compressibility factor
designed logical structure of controller for the whole system.
Greek symbols
This logical structure has been tested using three selected
a Charge transfer coefficient, 0e1
scenarios. This model can be used as a tool to test different
hcomp Compressor efficiency
scenarios corresponding to different purposes as follows:

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