Design of Reliable Power Electronics Converter for High Power Electrolysis Systems
Project description
The reduction of CO2 can be achieved by the process of electrolysis with the help of renewable energy systems (RES). To effectively integrate RES with the electrolysers, power electronics converters prove to suitable candidates for efficient power conversion. The process of electrolysis requires low voltage and an extremely high amount of current. Moreover, it is essential to have a converter with galvanic isolation. As a result, this imposes several design challenges such as dominance of conduction losses on the LV side of the converter, dominance of leakage inductance of the transformer due to high turns ratio and reliability. The goal of this PhD project is the exploration of various possibilities of achieving efficient energy conversion with the help of a reliable power electronics solution for high power electrolysis systems.
The research questions associated with this PhD project are as follows:
- How can the design of a power electronics converter be achieved for integrating regenerative cell/stack since the converter is required to operate at high efficiency over wide operating region because of asymmetric electrical characteristics of the cell?
- What are the various configurations derived from the parent topology that can prove to be suitable candidates in minimizing the losses incurred on the stack side considering the low voltage and high current requirement of the system?
- Which state-of-the-art modulation techniques can ensure efficient operation of the chosen configuration over a wide operating region?
- What faults/contingencies are likely to occur in such a high-power system (100 kW) for the chosen configuration considering that a greater number of components will affect the reliability as well as the efficiency of the chosen configuration
PhD Candidate
Rohan Shailesh Deshmukh, r.s.deshmukh@tudelft.nl
Supervisor
Dr. Aditya Shekhar, A.shekhar@tudelft.nl
Promotor
Prof. dr. Pavol Bauer, P.Bauer@tudelft.nl