TY - JOUR
T1 - Hydrogen at the rooftop
T2 - Compact CPV-hydrogen system to convert sunlight to hydrogen
AU - Burhan, Muhammad
AU - Shahzad, Muhammad Wakil
AU - Ng, Kim Choon
N1 - This research was supported by the International Research Scholarship of Mechanical Engineering Department, National University of Singapore and collaborated with King Abdullah University of Science and Technology.
PY - 2018/3/5
Y1 - 2018/3/5
N2 - Despite being highest potential energy source, solar intermittency and low power density make it difficult for solar energy to compete with the conventional power plants. Highly efficient concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) system provides best technology to be paired with the electrolytic hydrogen production, as a sustainable energy source with long term energy storage. However, the conventional gigantic design of CPV system limits its market and application to the open desert fields without any rooftop installation scope, unlike conventional PV. This makes CPV less popular among solar energy customers. This paper discusses the development of compact CPV-Hydrogen system for the rooftop application in the urban region. The in-house built compact CPV system works with hybrid solar tracking of 0.1° accuracy, ensured through proposed double lens collimator based solar tracking sensor. With PEM based electrolyser, the compact CPV-hydrogen system showed 28% CPV efficiency and 18% sunlight to hydrogen (STH) efficiency, for rooftop operation in tropical region of Singapore. For plant designers, the solar to hydrogen production rating of 217 kWhe/kgH2 has been presented with 15% STH daily average efficiency, recorded from the long term field operation of the system.
AB - Despite being highest potential energy source, solar intermittency and low power density make it difficult for solar energy to compete with the conventional power plants. Highly efficient concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) system provides best technology to be paired with the electrolytic hydrogen production, as a sustainable energy source with long term energy storage. However, the conventional gigantic design of CPV system limits its market and application to the open desert fields without any rooftop installation scope, unlike conventional PV. This makes CPV less popular among solar energy customers. This paper discusses the development of compact CPV-Hydrogen system for the rooftop application in the urban region. The in-house built compact CPV system works with hybrid solar tracking of 0.1° accuracy, ensured through proposed double lens collimator based solar tracking sensor. With PEM based electrolyser, the compact CPV-hydrogen system showed 28% CPV efficiency and 18% sunlight to hydrogen (STH) efficiency, for rooftop operation in tropical region of Singapore. For plant designers, the solar to hydrogen production rating of 217 kWhe/kgH2 has been presented with 15% STH daily average efficiency, recorded from the long term field operation of the system.
KW - Concentrated photovoltaic
KW - CPV
KW - Hydrogen
KW - Solar cell
KW - Solar to hydrogen
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85039719361&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2017.12.094
DO - 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2017.12.094
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85039719361
SN - 1359-4311
VL - 132
SP - 154
EP - 164
JO - Applied Thermal Engineering
JF - Applied Thermal Engineering
ER -
