STAND ALONE POWER SYSTEM COUPLING a PV FIELD AND a FUEL CELL: FIRST EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

S. BUSQUET, J. LABBE, P. LEROUX, R. METKEMEIJER, D. MAYER ENSMP-CENERG, Rue C. Daunesse, BP 207, F-06904 Sophia Antipolis, France

ABSTRACT: The purpose of the work, through the PVFC-SYS project, is to optimise the operation of a system coupling a photovoltaic field, an electrolyser, a gas storage, a fuel cell and a power management unit. A test bench is at present finalised in the Laboratory. All components have been selected for an optimal, automatic, safe and reliable operation of the complete system. Fully instrumented, this test bench furnishes new data concerning each component and the complete system behaviour for variable real weather conditions and different load demands. The paper describes the test bench, the simulation tool based on empirical model fitted to the component experimental data and the complete system performance for different load profiles along a year of operation.

1. INTRODUCTION The actual and forecasted balance sheets of the world energy consumption, the fossil resources as well as pollution of the earth planet, yield a growing interest for environmentally friendly solutions. Many remote sites exist and depend on standalone power systems. Usually, hybrid systems are used. A photovoltaic field and/or a wind farm are coupled to batteries and diesel units. A cleaner solution is to replace the diesel units by a fuel cell (no noise and zero emission). An electrolyser allows the production of fuels for the fuel cell. The energy is stored in gas form, allowing no loss for long-term storage. These clean stand alone power systems already exist and experimental results are encouraging. Usually, batteries are used to store energy for the short term (efficiency 75%) and hydrogen allows the energy storage over the seasons. The round trip efficiency is about 40% (electrolyser 80% + gases storage 100% + fuel cell 50%). Only few systems work without battery. The purpose of our studies is to evaluate the possibility to use the gas storage for the long term as well as for the short-term storage and to prove the reliability and the security of these systems.

The CENERG has decided to set up a test bench for this application. All components have been selected to optimise the operating of the PV-FC system. The next chapters describe firstly the optimised test bench, secondly the emprical model and finally the performance of the complete system. 2 DESCRIPTION OF THE SYSTEM The system is made up of a 3,6 kWp photovoltaic field (PV), a 4 kW Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (FC), a 12 kWh gas storage, a 3,6 kW alkaline electrolyser (EL), a small security battery and a Power Management Unit (PMU). More information on the test bench are available in the article [1]. The FC system especially designed for the application is described in reference [2]. The Figure 1 shows the PV-FC system installed on the roof of the laboratory at Sophia Antipolis and gives information on the electrical architecture of the test bench.

Figure 1: General description of the PV-FC system in place at Sophia Antipolis(F) (dotted arrows:
electrical connections; full arrows: H2, O2 and H2O transfers)

The PV field supplies the load. Excess electricity is fed to the electrolyser producing hydrogen and oxygen at a pressure of maximum 10 bar. Gases are stored without compression for short or long term. In case of renewable energy deficit, the fuel cell is switched on to help the PV to meet the load. A small battery is added to start up

the system and to safely stop the electrochemical components. If necessary, it can also help the system during transient steps when fast load variation occurs. But, it is never used as an energy storage. The Power Management Unit (PMU) is in charge of the conversion and the dispatching of the energy between each component. This central component is to be soon delivered, and then experimental results of the complete system in operation are not yet available. As all components have been tested in the laboratory or by the manufacturers, we propose to use a simulation tool based on empirical models in order to evaluate the complete system performance. 3. MODELLING The complete system model using Matlab/Simulink software consists of different blocks corresponding to each component. The 2 inputs are the load and the weather conditions (solar radiation and ambient temperature). Each component is simulated with an empirical model made of different modules corresponding to the electrical, thermal and hydraulic behaviours and the intrinsic consumption. A novel electrical model for electrochemical devices is used and will be presented soon [3]. The models have been validated and specifically fitted to the test bench components. The modelling tool has been optimised and enables to simulate the one year behaviour of the complete system in about 20 seconds (time step of 10 minutes). The choice of empirical models should enable any system to be simulated from experimental results. 4. ANALYSIS The presented results concern the test bench performance in case of stand alone operation. The location is Sophia Antipolis (4,7 kWh/m2 per day on 45 tilt plan). Different load profiles (constant or sinus) have been selected in order to evaluate average system efficiencies and their parameters. Two cases have been studied to state on the oxygen storage interest: first, oxygen is stored and used in order to increase the FC power density and to decrease the pure water consumption; secondly, oxygen is wasted and compressed air supplies the FC.

The complete system efficiency obviously depends on the load energy rate directly supplied by the PV field. It varies from 20 to 30 % (without taking into account the PV conversion efficiency). The available load consumption of this stand alone system is between 3,2 and 4,8 kWh per day. The hydrogen storage volume varies from 20 to 35 m3 at 10 Bar, depending on the load profile and especially on the annual variation. The water consumption in case of O2 storage is 30 kg per year, due to O2 leaks for the security measurement of gas purity. An on line measurement will reduce the water consumption to zero. In case of O2 wastes, the system is no more stand alone because of a yearly pure water consumption of 200 kg. The efficiency of the storage system made of the electrolyser, the gas storage unit and the FC is roughly constant for all simulated load profiles. Despite of the high efficiencies of the 2 electrochemical devices (80 % for the EL and 62 % for the FC), the storage efficiency, taking into account the intrinsic consumption (IC), is finally 4042 %. Indeed, a minimum constant power of 70 W (about half of the available load power) supplies magnetic valves, chosen for reliability reasons. Low consumption is still not the main concern in commercial device specifications. Other control strategy could also be conceivable. Regarding the complete simulation results, the weak points are located. The first one is obviously the storage system efficiency as discussed above. The second important energy loss occurs in the PMU. This central component has to be precisely selected and often especially designed for the application due to the small range of existing products. In addition, the annual operating time of the FC is between 5500 h and 6000 h corresponding almost to the present life time of FC stack. It induces that the FC power has to be perfectly sized to the load to limit the operating cost of the system. The last aspect is that such a system is not able to produce heat due to the low available load consumption to perform a stand alone operation. 5. CONCLUSIONS The test bench built at Sophia Antipolis has been designed as a stand alone, safe, optimised system. This 4 kW PV-FC system has at present an overall system efficiency of about 20 to 30 % (without taking into account the PV conversion efficiency). Compared to the PV-battery systems, this efficiency is very low but it can

be improved. Moreover, the hydrogen storage system shows many advantages: few energy losses occur whatever time duration; no operating constraints exist avoiding especially PV disconnection. This environmentally friendly solution allows an optimal use of the renewable sources. Our experimental studies have pointed out the necessary improvements to reach a higher efficiency: 1) intrinsic consumption of electrochemical components (the worst point) will be minimised by developing efficient auxiliary components (valves, pump, gas sensor), 2) dedicated electrolyser operates at high pressure to reduce storage volume, 3) dedicated fuel cell consumes pure oxygen for efficiency and pure water consumption reasons and 4) power management units are the key components not to be neglected. Although all these fields have known up to date important technical improvements, commercial components are not available today in a sufficient wide range to build really optimised PV-FC systems. Finally, increasing the overall efficiency will enable higher energy production leading to heat generation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We would like to thank the European Commission and ADEME for their financial contribution through different projects. REFERENCE [1] S. Busquet, F. Domain, R. Metkemeijer, D. Mayer, Stand-alone power system

coupling a PV Field and a fuel cell : Description of the selected system and advantages, Proceedings of the PV in Europe conference, Rome, Italy, 7-11 October, pp. 667-670, 2002.

[2]

S. Busquet, R. Metkemeijer, P. Leroux, D. Mayer, Stand-alone power system

coupling a PV field and a fuel cell : Experimental results of the FC system, Proceedings of the France-Deutschland Fuel Cell Conference 2002, October 7th to 10th 2002, ForbachSaarbrcken, pp. 85-92, 2002.

[3]

S. Busquet, C.E. Hubert, J. Labbe, R. Metkemeijer, D. Mayer, A new approach of

empirical modelling of a fuel cell or an electrolyser : Part I (electrical part) , submitted to publication in Journal of Power Sources.