Cell voltage static-dynamic modeling of a PEM electrolyzer based on adaptive parameters: Development and experimental validation

This article aims to propose and experimentally validate a static-dynamic electrical model of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzer. The originality of this work concerns the cell voltage modeling according to static and dynamic operations. Indeed, the cells of the PEM electrolyzer may be subjected to degradations due to the operating conditions and current ripple generated by power electronics. Hence, cell voltage response and efficiency may be affected. For this reason, it is crucial to model each cell voltage to investigate the degradation and wear effects mainly caused by the dynamic operating conditions met when coupling with renewable energy sources and current ripple from power electronics. To develop an accurate model, static and dynamic operations are investigated on a commercial-400 W PEM electrolyzer stack. To enhance the accuracy of the model in replicating the real behavior of the electrolyzer, the parameters of the model are adapted according to the input current. The comparison between the experimental data and the developed model has enabled confirming the effectiveness of the model to reproduce the cell voltage static and dynamic behavior according to the input current. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.