Analysis of energy efficiency of PEM water electrolyzer supplied by an ultrashort pulse wave

Energy Engineering

Nowadays, energy storage systems require reliable element and equipment. Having rechargeable electric energy source with satisfactory discharge duration becomes a priority in order to supply the mobile electronic devices and the various embarked systems. Best solution for this issue consists to use hydrogen Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell in which hydrogen gas plays the secondary energy source. Gas production from PEM electrolysis depends mainly on characteristic of power supply. In this paper, we focus on energy efficiency study of the PEM water electrolyzer made with Aciplex-501SB membrane and it supplied by 200ns with 100MHz ultrashort pulse wave. As a result, gas produced is extremely pure. Its yield can be calculated by the ratio between the energy output of PEM fuel cell and electric energy consumption during the water electrolysis. It was found that the yield of the designed PEM electrolyzer rises 18.42% that is more efficient compared to PEM electrolyzer supplied by direct current having only 9.36% of energy yield.

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