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Hydrogen-Based Hybrid Energy Systems: Optimization, Control and Economic Issues

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A5: Hydrogen Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 December 2023) | Viewed by 19022

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Prof. Dr. Haitham S. Ramadan

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Guest Editor

ISTHY, l'Institut International sur le Stockage de l'Hydrogène, 90400 Meroux-Moval, France
Interests: renewable energy; fuel cells; hybrid energy systems; hydrogen economy; hydrogen vessels; hydrogen technology readiness analysis; hydrogen production and distribution; optimization

Prof. Dr. Mohamed Becherif

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor

FCLab FR CNRS 3539, University of Bourgogne Franche-Comte/UTBM, 90010 Belfort Cedex, France
Interests: renewable energy; fuel cells; hybrid energy systems; hydrogen economy; hydrogen vessels; hydrogen technology readiness analysis; hydrogen production and distribution; control; optimization
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The recent unprecedented momentum towards employing hydrogen and renewable energy (RE) will be a key factor in shaping the future of clean and secure global energy. The hydrogen supply to industrial users is witnessing an escalating worldwide business which is almost completely produced from fossil fuels or with either natural gas or coal. From these latter, the annual hydrogen production responsibility for CO₂ emissions is equivalent to the United Kingdom and Indonesia’s combined emissions. Therefore, different policies that directly promote investments in hydrogen-based technologies are considered in the various sectors (energy, smart grids, heat, buildings, automotive, etc.). Hydrogen production costs, particularly from natural gas, are strongly impacted by technical and economic issues. These latter are mainly due to the variant and unexpected fuel prices and capital expenditures. Today, the global hydrogen production from water electrolysis is less than 0.1%. The declining costs for renewable energy generation, especially solar PV and wind energy, lead to growing interest in electrolytic hydrogen. In power generation, hydrogen is considered among the leading options for renewable energy storage. Both hydrogen and ammonia enables increasing power system flexibility when being used in gas turbines. In buildings, the possible blending of hydrogen into existing natural gas networks can be considered together with the direct use of hydrogen in either/both hydrogen boilers or/and fuel cells. In transport, hydrogen fuel cell cars and the relevant hydrogen storage systems strongly depend on their costs and the refueling stations. For trucks, reducing the price of hydrogen delivered is the fundamental target. Shipping and aviation seek for low-carbon fuel alternatives specially with hydrogen-based renewable energy technologies. For scaling up hydrogen demand and supply in the diverse sectors, different value chains in developing the relevant industries, infrastructure, and policies should be pursued. Recently, eco-sustainable and hydrogen-efficient renewable-based energy systems bring together the advantages of the different renewable energy sources with the efficient features of energy storage system and/or heat exchange technologies in the different mobile and stationary applications.

This Special Issue intends to provide a platform for researchers and practitioners from both academia and industry in the area of energy management and control of hybrid RE-based systems in stationary and mobile applications. For these applications, various aspects related to power/energy density, performance, durability, energy management, and safety should be examined. Furthermore, the control and power electronics targets besides the optimal operations of renewable energy systems are of great attractions to researchers.

In this Special Issue (SI), authors are invited to submit original full papers covering but not limited to the following topics:

Renewable energy (solar, wind, etc.);
Battery and/or fuel cells integration;
Hybridization in transportation applications;
Green buildings;
Net zero energy in buildings, energy storage systems and renewable-based off-grid/grid-interactive systems;
Hydrogen potential as a key role in a clean, secure, and affordable energy future;
Hydrogen-based technologies in critical energy challenges: smart buildings, clusters, or smart grids;
Fuel cell applications: control, energy management, and control;
Hydrogen in transport through fleets, freight, and corridors;
Electrolyser technologies: performance and cost analysis;
Technology readiness ratio and analysis;
Hydrogen storage tanks and systems;
Renewable energy for hydrogen production;
Socio-economic barriers and promoted policies;
Regulatory barriers and harmonized standards for fuel cells and hydrogen systems.

Prof. Dr. Haitham S. Ramadan
Prof. Dr. Mohamed Becherif
Guest Editors

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Keywords

Renewable energy
Fuel cells
Hybrid energy systems
Hydrogen economy
Hydrogen vessels
Hydrogen technology readiness analysis
Net zero buildings
Hydrogen production and distribution

Published Papers (9 papers)

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Research

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23 pages, 7905 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Practical Energy Management Control of Fuel Cell Hybrid Electric Vehicles Using Artificial-Intelligence-Based Flatness Theory

by Ilyes Tegani, Okba Kraa, Haitham S. Ramadan and Mohamed Yacine Ayad

Energies 2023, 16(13), 5023; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16135023 - 28 Jun 2023

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1094

Abstract

This paper proposes a practical solution to address the energy management issue in fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles (FCHEVs). This solution revolves around a powertrain system that contains a fuel cell (FC) as the main supply, a photovoltaic cell (PC) as the secondary energy source, and a battery bank (Batt) as backup storage to compensate for the FC’s low response rate. The energy in this hybrid powertrain system alternated between the designated elements and the load via a DC bus, and to maintain a stable output voltage, the DC link was adjusted using a nonlinear approach that is based on the flatness theory and the nonlinear autoregressive moving average (NARMA-L2) neuro-controller. As for the current regulation loops, the sliding mode technique was employed to attain the high dynamic of the reference signals produced by the energy manager loop. To validate the accuracy of the proposed energy management approach (EMA), a test bench was equipped with digital, electronic circuits and a dSPACE DS-1104 unit. This experimental bench contained a fuel cell emulator FC of 1200 W and 46 A, lithium-ion batteries of 24 V, and a solar source capable of 400 W. The obtained results, indeed, attested to the validity of the approach used, yielding a notable performance during multiple charge variations. This ultimately demonstrated that the management approach enhanced the efficiency of the hybrid powertrain. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrogen-Based Hybrid Energy Systems: Optimization, Control and Economic Issues)

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15 pages, 4376 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Efficient and Reliable Power-Conditioning Stage for Fuel Cell-Based High-Power Applications

by Mehroze Iqbal, Amel Benmouna, Frederic Claude and Mohamed Becherif

Energies 2023, 16(13), 4915; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16134915 - 24 Jun 2023

Viewed by 805

Abstract

Mainstream power-conditioning devices such as boost converters are frequently utilized for developing a compatible interface between a fuel cell, electrical storage, and high power loads. The conventional power stage comprising a unique boost converter suffers from low efficiency and poor reliability due to excessive power losses, particularly in high-power applications. Additionally, the presence of high ripple contents can reduce the lifespan of the fuel cell itself. With this background, this paper proposes and experimentally validates a physical components-assisted equivalent power-sharing strategy between parallel-coupled boost converters (PCCs) that is subjected to a wide spectrum of low-voltage–high-power conditions. The operation of PCCs is bottlenecked by several practical limitations, such as the presence of inner circulating currents (ICCs) and stability issues associated with the equivalent sharing of power. To overcome these limitations, a module of reverse blocking diodes is suggested to avoid ICCs between the PCCs. Further, an equalization filter is properly placed to improve the equivalent power-sharing capability. The proposed strategy is theoretically assessed in a MATLAB/Simulink environment with a 6 kW proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) as the main power source. A scaled-down laboratory setup consisting of an 810 W PEMFC stack, an electronic load, three boost converters, and a filter circuit is then designed and critically evaluated. A consistent agreement is observed between the experimental findings and the simulation results under realistic operating conditions. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrogen-Based Hybrid Energy Systems: Optimization, Control and Economic Issues)

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16 pages, 9320 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Parameter Identification of Electrical Equivalent Circuits including Mass Transfer Parameters for the Selection of the Operating Frequencies of Pulsed PEM Water Electrolysis

by Jae-Hoon Kim, Chang-Yeol Oh, Ki-Ryong Kim, Jong-Pil Lee and Tae-Jin Kim

Energies 2022, 15(24), 9303; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15249303 - 8 Dec 2022

Cited by 5 | Viewed by 1780

Abstract

This paper proposes a parameter identification method for a PEM electrolyzer electrical equivalent circuit for pulse electrolysis. Since general water electrolysis mainly uses DC currents, identifying equivalent circuit parameters using electrical characteristics mostly ignores the operation frequency and unnecessarily adheres to the secondary RC model. However, looking at the Nyquist plot of the PEM electrolyzer, it can be confirmed that identifying the operational frequency is necessary, and the secondary RC model correction is essential. Therefore, the proposed method confirms the necessity of reconstructing an electrical equivalent circuit with a primary RC model by analyzing the transient cell voltage using step current inputs and calculating an appropriate operating frequency by identifying the parameters of the reconstructed equivalent circuit. To verify the proposed parameter identification method, a simulation was constructed from the raw test data of a 400 W commercial PEM electrolyzer. In addition, the hydrogen production amount was compared to DC using a pulse electrolysis experiment at the operating frequency obtained by the proposed method. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrogen-Based Hybrid Energy Systems: Optimization, Control and Economic Issues)

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13 pages, 10054 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Forecasting Hydrogen Production from Wind Energy in a Suburban Environment Using Machine Learning

by Ali Javaid, Umer Javaid, Muhammad Sajid, Muhammad Rashid, Emad Uddin, Yasar Ayaz and Adeel Waqas

Energies 2022, 15(23), 8901; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15238901 - 24 Nov 2022

Cited by 17 | Viewed by 2805

Abstract

The environment is seriously threatened by the rising energy demand and the use of conventional energy sources. Renewable energy sources including hydro, solar, and wind have been the focus of extensive research due to the proliferation of energy demands and technological advancement. Wind energy is mostly harvested in coastal areas, and little work has been done on energy extraction from winds in a suburban environment. The fickle behavior of wind makes it a less attractive renewable energy source. However, an energy storage method may be added to store harvested wind energy. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of extracting wind energy in terms of hydrogen energy in a suburban environment incorporating artificial intelligence techniques. To this end, a site was selected latitude 33.64° N, longitude 72.98° N, and elevation 500 m above mean sea level in proximity to hills. One year of wind data consisting of wind speed, wind direction, and wind gust was collected at 10 min intervals. Subsequently, long short-term memory (LSTM), support vector regression (SVR), and linear regression models were trained on the empirically collected data to estimate daily hydrogen production. The results reveal that the overall prediction performance of LSTM was best compared to that of SVR and linear regression models. Furthermore, we found that an average of 6.76 kg/day of hydrogen can be produced by a 1.5 MW wind turbine with the help of an artificial intelligence method (LSTM) that is well suited for time-series data to classify, process, and predict. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrogen-Based Hybrid Energy Systems: Optimization, Control and Economic Issues)

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14 pages, 2874 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Effect of Airflow Non-Uniformities on the Thermal Performance of Water–Air Heat Exchangers—Experimental Study and Analysis

by Mahmoud Khaled, Mostafa Mortada, Jalal Faraj, Khaled Chahine, Thierry Lemenand and Haitham S. Ramadan

Energies 2022, 15(21), 8120; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15218120 - 31 Oct 2022

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1273

Abstract

The thermal performance of fin-and-tube heat exchangers (HX) is a crucial aspect in a multitude of applications and fields; several design and operational parameters influence this performance. This study focuses on the issue of flow maldistribution and its effect on the HX thermal performance. For this purpose, an experimental setup is designed and implemented to emulate the conditions under which an automotive heat exchanger operates in regard to the non-uniform upstream airflow velocity distribution over the HX surface. The setup allows obtaining various configurations of airflow velocity non-uniformity of some desired mean velocity and standard deviation. The experimental results reveal that a higher degree of non-uniformity (higher standard deviation of the velocity distribution) causes an increased deterioration of the HX thermal performance. For example, at a water flowrate of 200 L/h and a mean airflow velocity of 2 m/s, increasing the standard deviation from 0 to 2 m/s (i.e., moving from the lowest to highest degrees of non-uniformity) causes a total deterioration of 27% in the performance (3.78 to 2.75 kW, respectively), which can also be observed in the increased level of outlet water temperature (53.8 to 58.2 °C, respectively). The obtained results confirm the numerical results reported in the literature. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrogen-Based Hybrid Energy Systems: Optimization, Control and Economic Issues)

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19 pages, 3345 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Eco-Efficient Vehicle Cooling Modules with Integrated Diffusers—Thermal, Energy, and Environmental Analyses

by Jalal Faraj, Khaled Chahine, Mostafa Mortada, Thierry Lemenand, Haitham S. Ramadan and Mahmoud Khaled

Energies 2022, 15(21), 7917; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15217917 - 25 Oct 2022

Cited by 9 | Viewed by 1208

Abstract

The automotive domain is a very good candidate for energy management, particularly due to the huge amounts of energy lost by heat through exhaust and water-cooling systems. This makes the optimization of vehicle cooling modules directly related to energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission. In this context, contemporary designs that employ diffusers between the forward-facing of an automobile and its heat exchanger subjected to airflow are presented in this work. The ultimate aim is to reduce the fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions of vehicles. Based on the aforementioned design, the intensity of the air velocity would be decreased but distributed over a larger exchanger surface. Consequently, the velocity non-uniformity of the airflow upstream would decrease and therefore, the thermal performance would increase. The above-mentioned conclusion is a result of parametric numerical analysis and its associated numerical results that disclosed the enhancement of water-air heat exchanger thermal performance. To perform a parametric numerical analysis of the heat exchanger thermal performance for the new suggested configurations, a computational code was developed and validated to estimate the thermal performance for a known set of parameters. It was shown that for an automobile, with engine power ranging from 100–200 kW that is utilized for three hours a day and equipped with a diffuser, reduction of up to 2.91 kg (3.89 L) of gasoline consumption and 9.51 kg of CO₂ emission can be achieved per day. The originality of the present work resides in the use of diffusers in cooling modules of vehicles, the thermal modeling of heat exchanger’s thermal performance along with its associated code, and the parametric analysis performed to prove the potential enhancement related to the use of diffusers in the cooling modules. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrogen-Based Hybrid Energy Systems: Optimization, Control and Economic Issues)

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19 pages, 4367 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Water Cycle Algorithm Optimized Type II Fuzzy Controller for Load Frequency Control of a Multi-Area, Multi-Fuel System with Communication Time Delays

by Ch. Naga Sai Kalyan, B. Srikanth Goud, Ch. Rami Reddy, Haitham S. Ramadan, Mohit Bajaj and Ziad M. Ali

Energies 2021, 14(17), 5387; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14175387 - 30 Aug 2021

Cited by 31 | Viewed by 1929

Abstract

This paper puts forward the implementation of an intelligent type II fuzzy PID (T2-FPID) controller tweaked with a water cycle algorithm (WCA), subjected to an error multiplied with time area over integral (ITAE) objective index for regularizing the variations in frequency and interline power flow of an interconnected power system during load disturbances. The WCA-based T2-FPID is tested on a multi-area (MA) system comprising thermal-hydro-nuclear (THN) (MATHN) plants in each area. The dynamical behavior of the system is analyzed upon penetrating area 1 with a step load perturbation (SLP) of 10%. However, power system practicality constraints, such as generation rate constraints (GRCs) and time delays in communication (CTDs), are examined. Afterward, a territorial control scheme of a superconducting magnetic energy storage system (SMES) and a unified power flow controller (UPFC) is installed to further enhance the system performance. The dominancy of the presented WCA-tuned T2-FPID is revealed by testing it on a widely used dual-area hydro-thermal (DAHT) power system model named test system 1 in this paper. Analysis reveals the efficacy of the presented controller with other approaches reported in the recent literature. Finally, secondary and territorial regulation schemes are subjected to sensitivity analysis to deliberate the robustness. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrogen-Based Hybrid Energy Systems: Optimization, Control and Economic Issues)

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12 pages, 1518 KiB

Open AccessArticle

On the Optimization of Electrical Water Heaters: Modelling Simulations and Experimentation

by Wassim Salameh, Jalal Faraj, Elias Harika, Rabih Murr and Mahmoud Khaled

Energies 2021, 14(13), 3912; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14133912 - 29 Jun 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2120

Abstract

In the context of a world energy crisis, the only solution to control the situation is in the management of energy. One of the most important management keys is the optimization of electrical components. This article presents a complete numerical and experimental study aiming for the optimization of electrical water heaters for household use. The optimization conceives the minimization of energy consumption simultaneously with the minimization of time to heat water. Firstly, a thermal model well adapted for the case of heaters is constructed and validated experimentally and then a parametric study is conducted covering all the input power, the volume and the external area of the heater. Results are promising, showing significant energy savings are possible with an optimum setting of these parameters, thus presenting a firm tool for the optimization of heaters. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrogen-Based Hybrid Energy Systems: Optimization, Control and Economic Issues)

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Review

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31 pages, 28967 KiB

Open AccessReview

Energy Recovery in Air Conditioning Systems: Comprehensive Review, Classifications, Critical Analysis, and Potential Recommendations

by Rima Aridi, Jalal Faraj, Samer Ali, Mostafa Gad El-Rab, Thierry Lemenand and Mahmoud Khaled

Energies 2021, 14(18), 5869; https://doi.org/10.3390/en14185869 - 16 Sep 2021

Cited by 15 | Viewed by 4297

Abstract

Energy has become the backbone of humanities daily activities. Heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems (HVAC), which consume around 39% of energy in the residential sector, have turned into an essential constituent for providing fresh air, especially after COVD-19, not only in hospitals but also in any simple construction. Thus, decreasing this percentage or recovering part of the energy lost is an essential issue in today’s energy management scenarios. In this context, the present manuscript suggests a comprehensive review, classifications, critical analysis, and potential recommendations for energy recovery in air conditioning systems. It classifies energy recovery into two main categories: using lost energy for external uses, such as heating domestic water, or with other devices; and using lost energy for internal uses, such as the hot airflow which can be reused again for increasing efficiency of HVAC. In addition, this paper presents a summary of previous research and undertakes a review of the devices used for recovering energy. Furthermore, this review identifies superior devices in terms of climate and weather conditions. These objectives are accomplished by investigating around 190 published papers to conclude that energy recovery devices show a considerable effect on energy consumption in HVAC, mainly the heat pipe, fixed plate, and rotary wheel devices. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Hydrogen-Based Hybrid Energy Systems: Optimization, Control and Economic Issues)

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