Hydrogen production is one of the promising methods to store electric energy obtained from solar cells as a fuel via electrocatalytic water splitting. Direct coupling of modified solar cell modules and water electrolyzers is here a promising approach due to advantageous heat transfer as well as avoidance of the efficiency drop from a voltage regulator. In this project, the aim is to build a large area demonstration system for hydrogen production from solar energy via integrated photovoltaic and electrolyzer (PV-EC) systems, primarily based on usage of abundant, renewable, environmentalist and economical materials. A general model for different PV-EC systems will be introduced that can be used to optimize and match the components of a PV-EC device in order to maximize the hydrogen yield and calculating the solar-to-hydrogen (STH) efficiency for varying irradiation and temperatures. The results indicate that it is possible to obtain an efficiency that corresponds to up to 80 % of the conversion efficiency of the solar cells connected in series and using non-precious, earth-abundant and cheap catalyst materials. For a solar cell module efficiency of 17 %, thereby 14 % STH efficiency is possible without the need to utilize the more expensive tandem approach. For the values used in the first tests of the module, we tested areas of the electrolyzer-components using also precious catalysts down to only 1 % of the photovoltaic area, without limitation of the STH efficiency of the system.<br/>

Simulation of technologically feasible potential for integrated photovoltaic and electrolyzer devices for solar hydrogen production

2019 Spring National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.