Hydrogen is a flexible energy carrier and storage medium and can be generated by electrolysis of water. In this research, hydrogen generation is maximized by optimizing the optimal sizing and operating condition of an electrolyzer directly connected to a PV module. The method presented here is based on Particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO). The hydrogen, in this study, was produced using a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer. The required power was supplied by a photovoltaic module rated at 80 watt. In order to optimize Hydrogen generation, the cell number of the electrolyser and its activity must be 9 and 3, respectively. As a result, it is possible to closely match the electrolyzer polarization curve to the curve connecting PV system’s maximum power points at different irradiation levels.
PSO is a novel method in optimization inspiring from observation of bird flocking and fish schooling. Comparing to other optimization method, not only PSO is more efficient and require lower functions of evaluations, but it leads to better results, as well.
A Novel Method for Investigating Photovoltaic Module Degradation
