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Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar

energy and PEM electrolyser in Algeria

Djamila Ghribi a,*, Abdellah Khelifa b, Said Diaf a, Maı̈ouf Belhamel a

a
Center of Development of Renewable Energy, BP 62 Route de l’observatoire, Bouzaréah, Algiers, Algeria
b
Laboratory of Chemicals Engineering, University S. Dahlab of Blida, BP 270, Blida, Algeria

article info abstract

Article history: Hydrogen fuel can be produced by using solar electric energy from photovoltaic (PV)
Received 21 June 2012 modules for the electrolysis of water without emitting carbon dioxide or requiring fossil
Received in revised form fuels.
14 September 2012 In this paper, an assessment of the technical potential for producing hydrogen from the
Accepted 29 September 2012 PV/proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyser system is investigated. The present study
Available online xxx estimates the amount of hydrogen produced by this system in six locations using hourly
global solar irradiations on horizontal plane and ambient temperature. The system studied
Keywords: in this work is composed of 60 W PV module connected with a commercial 50 W PEM
Hydrogen production electrolyser via DC/DC converter equipped with a maximum power point tracking. The
PEM electrolyser primary objective is to develop a mathematical model of hydrogen production system,
PV system including PV module and PEM electrolyser to analyze the system performance. The
Solarehydrogen system secondary aim is to compare the system performance in terms of hydrogen production at
Simulation seven locations situated in different regions of Algeria. The amount of hydrogen produced is
estimated at seven locations situated in different regions. In terms of hydrogen production,
the results show that the southern region of Algeria (Adrar, Ghardaia, Bechar and Tam-
anrasset) is found to have the relatively highest hydrogen production. The total annual
production of hydrogen is estimated to be around 20e29 m3 at these sites. The hydrogen
production at various sites has been found to vary according to the solar radiation.
Copyright ª 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights
reserved.

1. Introduction The coupling of a PV generator and an electrolyser,

Hydrogen can be generated by a wide range of technologies
such as: reforming of natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas,
gasoline .etc.; gasification of coal and biomass; electrolysis of
water using nuclear, fossil or renewable energy sources;
photoelectrochemical/photocatalytic splitting of water; ther-
molysis and thermo-chemical cycles [1e5].
But to respect the environment, the solution of renewable
energy sources, particularly solar energy, appears most
appropriate for a climate of clean future industry.
[6e13], besides the catalytic splitting water [14e22] is the
most promising options for obtaining hydrogen from
a clean renewable energy source. But at present, the second
technology is not well developed as the PVeElectrolyser
system, because the challenges of the research to find
materials which possess low overpotentials are not solved
yet.
A PVehydrogen system usually consists of supplying
electric power to a water electrolyser by a PV generator. The
PV’s technology is well known. For electrolyser, currently

* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ213 21 901 503; fax: þ213 21 901 654.
E-mail address: ghdiaf@yahoo.fr (D. Ghribi).
0360-3199/$ e see front matter Copyright ª 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175

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electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175
2 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 2 ) 1 e1 1

Nomenclature Imax,ref current at maximum power point under normal

2 conditions of solar irradiance and temperature
Gb total solar radiation on a tilted surface Gâ, W/m
Vmax,ref voltage at maximum power point under normal
Gref reference solar radiation, 1000 W/m2
conditions of solar irradiance and temperature
Gb,b hourly beam radiation on the tilted surface, W/m2
NOCT Nominal Operating Cell Temperature, that is PV
Gr,b hourly reflected radiation on the tilted surface,
cell temperature when Ta ¼ 20  C and G ¼ 800 W/m2
W/m2
Ta ambient temperature,  C
Gd,b hourly sky diffuse radiation on the tilted surface,
Tc cell temperature,  C
W/m2
Tc,ref reference cell temperature, 25  C
q the angle of incidence
mIsc coefficient of variation of short circuit current as
qz the zenith angle
a function of temperature
d declination
mVoc coefficient of variation of the open circuit voltage
F latitude
as a function of temperature
u hour angle calculated at midhour
IEL input current of the electrolyser, A
Vpv photovoltaic module output voltage, V
t time in seconds (3600)
Ipv photovoltaic module output current, A
F Faraday constant, 96,485 C/mol
C1, C2 constants calculated at each simulation
P atmospheric pressure, 1.013 $ 105 Pa
Voc,ref open circuit voltage under normal conditions of
R ideal gas constant, 8314 J/mol K
solar irradiance and temperature
z number of electrons (zðH2 Þ ¼ 2)
Isc,ref short circuit current under normal conditions of
PGPV delivered power of the PV generator
solar irradiance and temperature
PEL power required by the electrolyser

most of the commercial water electrolysis technologies use
acidic or alkaline electrolyte systems for hydrogen generation.
More recently a solid state water electrolysis technology based
on polymer electrolyte membrane has been under develop-
ment and is being commercialised [23e25]. Its operation can
be considered to be reverse to that of a PEM fuel cell. The PEM
electrolysis systems can respond rapidly to varying power
inputs and therefore can be easily integrated with renewable
energy systems.
To contribute to the production of hydrogen by renew-
able energy, the Algerian Government has launched,
through the General Direction of Scientific Research and
Technological Development (DGRST), a National Research
Program (PNR) intended to promote renewable energies
[26].
Among the selected and accepted projects, there is the
project “SOLAHYD”. This project consists to conduct an
initial pilot experiment for hydrogen production by reali-
zation of an experimental test bench. This test bench
contains a PV module and PEM electrolyser. The different
steps of project realization are defined. The first step of this
project mainly focuses on realizing the modeling and
simulation.
In this context, this paper presents the performance
analysis of hydrogen production system using PV energy and
PEM electrolyser. In addition, this study allows to estimates
the amount of hydrogen produced in different regions of
Algeria.
The system considered in this study is consisted of 60 W PV
module connected with a commercial 50 W PEM electrolysers
PEM Staxx (h-tec) stack (seven cells connected in series) via
a converter DC/DC. The system works at the maximum power
point.
The main objective of this study consists an evaluation of
the technical performance of the hydrogen production system
(PV energy and PEM electrolyser) in terms of hydrogen
production at various locations in Algeria.
This work is divided into two parts: the first part presents
the mathematical model of hydrogen production system;
including PV module and PEM electrolyser.
The second part of this paper presents the simulation
results related to the technical evaluation of hydrogen
generation from the studied system for seven locations situ-
ated in different regions.
2. Modeling of PVehydrogen system
The main components of the PV hydrogen system are the PV
generator and the electrolyser. The system is presented in
Fig. 1.
In the following sections, the models of the system
components are presented.
2.1. PV system model
In this study, the PV power generation simulation model
consists of two parts: solar radiation on PV module surface
and PV generator model.
2.1.1. Solar radiation model on PV module surface
The total solar radiation on a tilted surface Gâ can be calcu-
lated by the following expression [27]:
Gb ¼ Gb;b þ Gr;b þ Gd;b (1)
where Gb,b, Gr,b and Gd,b are the hourly beam, reflected and sky
diffuse radiation on the tilted surface respectively.
2.1.1.1. The tilted beam radiation. The beam radiation on the
tilted surface can be simulated by the following expression:

Please cite this article in press as: Ghribi D, et al., Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM
electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 2 ) 1 e1 1 3

Fig. 1 e Schematic of PV hydrogen production system.

cos ðqÞ 8
Gb;b ¼ ðGh  Gd;h Þ (2) < f ¼ 0:995  0:081k for k  0:21
cos ðqz Þ f ¼ 0:724 þ 2:738k  8:32k2 þ 4:967k3 for 0:21 < k  0:76 (6)
:
f ¼ 0:180 for k > 0:76
where Gh, Gd,h, q, qz are respectively the horizontal solar global
radiation, the horizontal diffuse solar radiation, the angle of where k is the clearness index. (k ¼ Gh/G0h) and G0h is the
incidence and the zenith angle. horizontal extraterrestrial solar radiation.
qz is calculated by the well-known formula [27]:
2.1.1.2. The reflected radiation. Considering that the reflection
cos qz ¼ sin d sin F þ cos d cos F cos u (3)
is isotropic and the beam and diffuse radiation reflectances
where d is the declination (23.45  d  23.45 ), F is the are identical, the hourly radiation reflected by the ground is
geographic latitude and u is the hour angle calculated at 1
Gr;b ¼ rGh ð1  cos ðbÞÞ (7)
midhour. q is the angle of incidence for an arbitrarily inclined 2
surface oriented toward the equator and calculated by where b is the slop angle of the PV module (considered in this
cos q ¼ sin d sin ðF  bÞ þ cos d cos ðF  bÞcos u (4) paper equal to the latitude of the site) and r is the albedo
(taken equal to 0.2).
In this study, the estimation of the horizontal diffuse solar
radiation is based on the CLIMED2 model [28]. This model uses
2.1.1.3. The tilted diffuse component. The Klucher model [29] is
the diffuse fraction correlation defined as follows:
utilized to estimate the diffuse radiation on the module
Gd;h surface
f¼ (5)    
Gh 1 3 b  3 
Gd;b ¼ Gd;h ð1 þ cos ðbÞÞ 1 þ F sin 1 þ F cos2 ðqÞsin ðqz Þ
The diffuse fraction correlation is represented by the 2 2
following expressions: (8)

1.0

0.8

0.6
F factor

0.4

0.2

0.0
0 72 144 216 288 360 432 504 576 648 720
(hour)

Fig. 2 e Variation of F factor during January for the site of Adrar.

Please cite this article in press as: Ghribi D, et al., Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM
electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175
4 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 2 ) 1 e1 1

Fig. 3 e How to obtain tilted solar radiation data [30].

F is the modulating function given by: 5.00

 2
Gd;h
F¼1 (9)
Gh 4.00

As example, the variation of F is represented in Fig. 2 for the

Current (A)

month of January for the site of Adrar. 3.00

The methodology adopted to obtain the hourly global

radiation on an inclined plane is described by Diaf et al. [30]. It 2.00
is summarized by the block diagram shown in Fig. 3.

1.00
2.1.2. PV generator model
To match a PV module with an electrolyser, it’s necessary to
know the currentevoltage characteristics of the PV modules. 0.00
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
In this study, an explicit model is used for determining the
Voltage (V)
characteristic curves of PV module.
This model requires four input parameters related to the Fig. 4 e Experimental IeV characteristic curve of 50 W PEM
reference Conditions (cell temperature ¼ 25  C and solar electrolyser.
irradiance ¼ 1000 W/m2): the short circuit current Isc,ref, the
open circuit voltage Voc,ref, the maximum power current of the

module Imax,ref and the maximum power voltage of the Vmax;ref =Voc;ref  1
C2 ¼   (12)
module Vmax,ref [31]. ln 1  Imax;ref =Isc;ref
Then, the currentevoltage (IpveVpv) characteristic of the PV
Under the variable operating conditions of temperature and
module under the reference conditions can be given as
solar irradiance, the new values of the current (Ipvn) and the
follows:
voltage (Vpvn) of the PV module/generator are obtained by:
    
Vpv
Ipv ¼ Isc;ref 1  C1 exp 1 (10) Ipvn ¼ Ipv þ DI (13)
C2 Voc;ref

where
Vpvn ¼ V þ DV (14)
   
Imax;ref Vmax;ref
C1 ¼ 1 exp (11)
Isc;ref C2 Voc;ref

Table 2 e Selected sites.

Table 1 e Specifications of the StaXX7 PEM electrolyser Site Latitude ( N) Altitude (m)
unit. Adrar 27.49 279
Electrode area 7 cells of 16 cm2 each Algiers 36.45 116
Dimensions 190  264  200 mm Batna 35.33 1052
Power 50 W à 14 V DC Bechar 31.37 772
Permissible voltage 10.5e14.0 V DC Ghardaı̈a 32.24 468
Permissible current 0e4.0 A DC Tlemcen 35.01 247
H2 production 230 cm3/min Tamanrasset 22.47 1377

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electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 2 ) 1 e1 1 5

 
DI and DV represent respectively the variation of the PV Gb 
DV ¼ 0:0539$Vmax;ref ln  mVoc Tc  Tc;ref (16)
module current and voltage with solar radiation and Gref
temperature and they are given by the following equations
DT ¼ Tc  Tc;ref (17)
[32e34]:
    where Gâ is the global solar irradiance on tilted PV module (W/
Gb Gb
DI ¼ mIsc DT þ  1 Isc;ref (15) m2), Gref is the reference solar irradiance (1000 W/m2), Tc,ref is
Gref Gref
the reference cell temperature (25  C), mIsc, mVoc are

Fig. 5 e Daily global solar radiation on horizontal plane in (a) December (b) July [45].

Please cite this article in press as: Ghribi D, et al., Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM
electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175
6 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 2 ) 1 e1 1

respectively the module current and module voltage temper-

   
Vmax
ature coefficients. Imax ¼ Isc;ref 1  C1 exp  1 þ DI (19)
C2 Voc;ref
Tc represents the cell operating temperature and can be
given by the following equation [35e37]:

 
Einc
  Vmax ¼ Vmax;ref 1 þ 0:0539log þ mVoc DT (20)
NOCT  20 Eref
Tc ¼ Ta þ Gb (18)
800

where Ta is the ambient temperature and NOCT is the normal 2.2. PEM electrolyser model
operating cell temperature, which is generally given by the
manufacturer’s PV modules. In this paper, an empirical method is used to approach elec-
The maximum power point current Imax and voltage Vmax trical behavior of commercial 50 W StaXX7 h-tec PEM elec-
under arbitrary conditions can be expressed by the following trolyser comprising a stack of seven PEM cells in series. The
equations [35e37]: specifications of this electrolyser type are given in Table 1.

a 1200
Hourly Solar Irradiation (Wh/m2)

800

400

0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000
Time (h)

b 1200
Hourly Solar Irradiation (Wh/m2)

800

400

0
0 2000 4000 6000 8000
Time (h)

Fig. 6 e Hourly solar irradiation on tilted plane of (a) Adrar (b) Algiers.

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electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175
 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 2 ) 1 e1 1 7

the number of PEM electrolyser cell stacks, F is the Faraday

Table 3 e Electrical characteristics of the PV module (BPSX
60). constant (96,485 C/mol), Ta is the ambient temperature (298 K),
P is the atmospheric pressure, R is the ideal gas constant
Type of module BP SX 60
(8314 J/mol K) and z is the excess number of electron which is 2
Maximum power (Pmax,ref) 60 W for hydrogen.
Voltage at Pmax (Vmp,ref) 16.8 V By substitution, we obtain:
Current at Pmax (Imp,ref) 3.56 A
Short circuit current (Isc,ref) 3.87 A VH2 ðcalculatedÞ ¼ 0:4467  nc  IEL (24)
Open circuit voltage (Voc,ref) 21 V
Hence
Temperature coefficient of Isc (0.065  0.015)%/ C
Temperature coefficient of Voc (80  10) mV/ C VH2 produced ¼ 0:4467  IEL  nc  hf ðl=hÞ (25)
Temperature coefficient of power (0.5  0.05)%/ C
NOCT 45  2  C
According to the literature, the faradic efficiency of PEM
electrolyser’s is assumed to be more than 99% [44]. So in this
study, the faradic efficiency is taken arbitrary equal to 97%.

Several empirical models have been developed to describe

the characteristic of different types of electrolysers. These 2.3. Coupling of a PV generator to a PEM electrolyser
models can be represented by a linear equation, exponential
equation or by the curve of Tafel [38e41]. In this study, the electrolyser is coupled to the PV generator
In this paper, the currentevoltage characteristic curve of via control system with a maximum power point tracking
the electrolyser is estimated through polynomial interpola- DC/DC converter (MPPT). Both systems (PV generator and
tion of the experimental data values given in literature [38,42]. electrolyser) work in optimal conditions, but some losses have
Fig. 4 shows the experimental currentevoltage characteristic been taken into account in the DC/DC converter.
curve of the electrolyser. During this operation of the system, two cases are
The fitting equation of the experimental IeV characteristic considered:
curve, elaborated in this work can be expressed as:
8  PGPV  PEL
< 0 V  10
IEL ¼ P 3
(21)
: ai V V > 10
i
The power generated by the PV generator is less than or
i¼0
equal to the power required by the electrolyser PEL. In this
where the ai are the polynomial coefficients (a0 ¼ 128.118; case, the power generated by the PV generator is completely
a1 ¼ 33.1587; a2 ¼ 2.76617; a3 ¼ 0.0732506) with quadratic delivered to the electrolyser.
error, R2 ¼ 0.01588155.
Estimation of hydrogen production  PGPV > PEL
According to Faraday’s law, the amount of hydrogen
produced by the electrolyser in 1 h can be calculated by: The power generated by the PV generator is greater than the
power required by the electrolyser PEL. In this case, the power
VH2 ðproducedÞ
hf ¼ (22) overproduced by the PV generator is assumed to be wasted.
VH2 ðcalculatedÞ

where
R  IEL  Ta  t 3. Results and discussion
VH2 ðcalculatedÞ ¼ nc (23)
FPz
[43]IEL is the input current of the electrolyser in (A), t is the This study is to present the performance analysis of PV
period of time current supplied to electrolyser in (s) (3600), nc is module/PEM electrolyser system for producing the hydrogen

Fig. 7 e IeV curves of PV module at different levels of solar irradiance.

Please cite this article in press as: Ghribi D, et al., Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM
electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175
8 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 2 ) 1 e1 1

assumed to be installed at seven sites located in two different year of hourly global solar irradiations on horizontal plane
regions of Algeria: Southern region (Adrar, Bechar, Ghardaia and hourly ambient temperature. The solar power is
and Tamanrasset) and Northern region (Algiers, Batna and assumed to be constant during the time step (1 h in this
Tlemcen) Table 2. The simulations are computed using one study).

Fig. 8 e Yearly profile of hourly hydrogen produced by PV-electrolyser system in (a) Adrar, (b) Algiers, (c) Tamanrasset.

Please cite this article in press as: Ghribi D, et al., Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM
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 i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 2 ) 1 e1 1 9

3.1. Radiation results are given for different solar radiation levels 200, 400, 600, 800,
and 1000 W/m2. As shown in this figure, at fixed cell temper-
As mentioned earlier, the study objective is to analyze the ature, the short circuit current and the open circuit voltage are
performance of PV module/PEM electrolyser system for influenced by the incident solar radiation. The open circuit
producing the hydrogen. The available solar potential quality voltage increases logarithmically by increasing the solar
in one candidate site is one of the most important parameters radiation, whereas the short circuit current increases linearly.
defining the system performance. Fig. 5 shows the daily global The influence of the temperature is also illustrated in this
solar radiation on horizontal plane in Algeria territory for two figure. It shows that at a fixed radiation level, an increasing
different months which represent winter and summer temperature leads to a decreasing open circuit voltage and
seasons [45]. a slightly increased short circuit current. Thus the tempera-
As it can be seen from this figure, Algeria has a good solar ture effects must be incorporated into the model.
potential which can be contribute to the electricity generation. In addition, under standard conditions, the simulation
The solar potential evaluation shows that for the south region, results closely match those provided in the manufacturer’s
which represents 80% of the territory, the annual solar ener- datasheet.
gies lie between 2350 and 2600 kWh/m2.
As the first step, the solar radiation model is developed to 3.3. Hydrogen production
estimate the solar radiation on tilted plane. The simulation
results obtained are presented in Fig. 6 for two sites of Algiers One of the main targets of this study is to analyze and
and Adrar as example. These values of this parameter are used compare the hydrogen production in different sites located
as inputs to the PV module/PEM electrolyser system model. through the country. The amount of hydrogen generated by
the system considered in this study is analyzed for seven sites
3.2. PV results located in different regions. The simulation results are pre-
sented at different time scales (hourly, monthly and yearly).
The system considered, in this study, is a combined PV Fig. 8 shows the hourly hydrogen produced by the studied
module type BP Solar BPSX of 60 W and commercial 50 W system for the sites of Adrar, Tamanrasset (southern region)
StaXX7 h-tec PEM electrolyser comprising a stack of seven and Algiers (northern region), given as an example. The
PEM cells in series. The technical specifications of PV module simulation results show that the hourly hydrogen production
are summarized in Table 3. depends on the available solar radiation and its maximum
The system modeling is divided in two parts: value of 13.8 l is occurred for Tamanrasset in February and
The first part concerns the PV module. The performance of March.
PV modules is a function of the physical variables of the PV The production of hydrogen varies greatly throughout the
cell material, the solar cell temperature and the solar radia- different months and sites. It depends directly on the avail-
tion incident on the PV modules. ability of solar radiation. Fig. 9 shows the monthly variation of
Fig. 7 shows the simulation results of the currentevoltage the hydrogen amount produced by PV/PEM electrolyser
characteristics curves of the BPSX 60 PV module. These curves system at different locations.

4
Algiers
Batna
Tlemcen
Cumulative monthly Hydrogen Production (m3)

Ghardaïa
Bechar
Adrar
3 Tamanrasset

ar r l t c
Jan Fe
b
M Ap M
ay Ju
n Ju Au
g
Se
p
Oc No
v
De

Fig. 9 e Monthly hydrogen production by PVeElectrolyser system.

Please cite this article in press as: Ghribi D, et al., Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM
electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175
10
6000
Operating time
Hydrogen production
Operating time (hours/year)
4500
3000
1500
0 0
Algi
ers Batn
a cen
Tlem
Fig. 10 e Comparison of annual hydrogen production at
different sites.
As can be seen from the figure, the maximum value of the
hydrogen production occurs for the southern region. For
example, at Adrar, Bechar and Tamanrasset, the amount of
cumulative monthly hydrogen production is respectively 2.67,
2.57 and 2.73 m3 in March, while the minimum cumulative
monthly hydrogen production value of 1.44 m3 is occurred in
January for the site of Ghardaia.
For the northern region, it can be noticed that the hydrogen
production is not uniform during all year. In July, the monthly
hydrogen production at Algiers is twice more important than
that of December or than that of January.
In addition, Fig. 9 shows that during the winter months, the
hydrogen production is smaller than that in other months.
In terms of annual production capacity, the amount of the
hydrogen produced is plotted in Fig. 10 for different sites
considered in this study. As a result, the same system
produces different amount of hydrogen at various sites.
The sites located in the southern region have the highest
annual production of hydrogen compared to the other sites.
The estimated amount of cumulative annual hydrogen
production is about 26, 27.7, 25.44 and 29 m3/year at respec-
tively Adrar, Bechar, Ghardaia and Tamanrasset. As can be
seen from the figure, the yearly hydrogen production ranges
from about 20.4 m3 in Algiers (northern region) to 26 m3 in
Adrar (southern region).
These results indicate that the higher hydrogen amount
production can be obtained by choosing sites with high solar
radiation.
In addition, the simulation results show that the total
number of operating hours of the system varies relatively
little. It ranges between 4200 and 4350 h/year for all sites
considered in this study (Fig. 10).
4. Conclusion
This paper presents the performance analysis of hydrogen
production system consisting of 60 W PV module and a 50 W
PEM electrolyser. The objective of this study is to develop
Please cite this article in press as: Ghribi D, et al., Study of hydrogen production system by using PV solar energy and PEM
electrolyser in Algeria, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.175
i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f h y d r o g e n e n e r g y x x x ( 2 0 1 2 ) 1 e1 1
40 a mathematical model of hydrogen production system and to
compare the system performance in terms of hydrogen
production at seven locations situated in different regions of
Hydrogen production (m3/year)
Algeria.
30
According to the results, related to the seven sites
considered in this study, it can be concluded that:
20
 Algeria has a good solar potential which can be contribute to
the electricity generation.
10
 The sites located in the southern region are characterized by
a good solar potential compared to other regions.
 The amount of hydrogen production depends strongly on
the available solar radiation.
 In terms of hydrogen production, the southern region of
a
rdai Becha
r
Adr
ar sset
Gha anra
Tam Algeria (Adrar, Ghardaia, Bechar and Tamanrasser) is found
Site
to have the relatively highest hydrogen production. The
maximum cumulative hydrogen production of 29 m3/year is
found at Tamanrasset.
 The estimated amount of total annual hydrogen production
is found to vary from about 20 m3/year in Algiers (northern
region) to 29 m3/year in Tamanrasset (southern region).
 The highest hydrogen production is obtained in March for
the southern region and July for the northern region.
Finally, the existence of Albian water reservoir in the
southern region (near the region of Adra) makes that this
region as one of the most favorable for hydrogen production
by electrolysis.
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