Experimental study of alkaline water electrolyzer performance and frequency behavior under high frequency dynamic operation

Industrial water electrolyzers mainly use old thyristor-based rectifiers to obtain the DC current required to run because of the low voltage level and high current requirements of the processes. These rectifiers cause significant ripple in the electrolyzer input current, leading to dynamic operation of the electrolyzer. Even though industrial-scale water electrolyzers are operated under such dynamic conditions, the effect on the electrolyzer performance is not well explored. In this study, current measurements from an industrial alkaline electrolyzer plant were used to define the common current ripple amplitude and frequency caused by the thyristor-based rectification. Based on the parameters obtained, laboratory measurements were conducted using an alkaline water electrolyzer to define the power losses incurred at various ripple amplitudes and frequencies. Additionally, the linearization of the electrolyzer current–voltage behavior as a function of frequency was studied using two electrode sets made of different materials. The laboratory measurements carried out in the study show that the ripple amplitude has a significant effect on increasing the losses, whereas the ripple frequency counteracts this. Thus, dynamic operation can have a large impact on losses, especially at partial loads, where the ripple current amplitudes increase significantly when using thyristor rectifiers. Lastly, the frequencies where the electrolyzer starts to behave linearly were observed to be at 68 Hz with the first electrode set and at 5 Hz with the second one. The considerable difference between the electrode sets indicates that the electrode materials and microstructure play a significant role in defining the electrolyzer frequency behavior. Because common thyristor-based power delivery systems operate at 300 Hz or 600 Hz, the results also imply that when modeling these systems, a linear model can be used for the electrolyzer to simplify the simulation.