Method for controlling an electrolysis system taking into account the temperature of the electrolyser modules of the said electrolysis system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10056632-B2
Application number	US-201514880771-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 12, 2015
Priority date	Oct 13, 2014
Publication date	Aug 21, 2018
Grant date	Aug 21, 2018

Abstract

The method for controlling an electrolysis system ( 1 ) having a plurality of electrolyser modules ( 2 ) and designed to cooperate with a system ( 3 ) for supplying electric energy which uses an intermittent energy source includes: determining (E 1 ) an available electric power which the electric energy supply system ( 3 ) can provide; evaluating (E 2 ) a suitable number N e of electrolyser modules ( 2 ) to be used according to the available electric power; selecting (E 3 ) electrolyser modules ( 2 ) to be supplied electrically, taking into account the number evaluated N e ; determining (E 4 ) the temperature of each electrolyser module selected; and electrically supplying (E 5 ) the selected electrolyser modules ( 2 ) by the electric energy supply system according to a distribution of the available electric power depending on the temperatures determined (E 4 ) of each of the electrolyser modules selected.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. Method for controlling an electrolysis system which comprises a plurality of electrolyser modules and is configured to cooperate with an electric energy supply system which uses an intermittent energy source, the method comprising:
determining an available electric power which the electric energy supply system can provide;
evaluating a number N e of electrolyser modules to be used according to the determined available electric power;
selecting electrolyser modules to be supplied electrically among functional electrolyser modules of the plurality of electrolyser modules of the electrolysis system, taking into account the number evaluated N e , wherein a number of selected electrolyser modules varies so that, in at least one configuration of the electrolysis system, the number of selected electrolyser modules is lower than a total number of functional electrolyser modules of the electrolysis system;
determining a temperature of each of the electrolyser modules selected;
supplying electrically the selected electrolyser modules, wherein the supplying is performed by the electric energy supply system, wherein the electric energy supply system distributes the determined available electric power to the selected electrolyser modules as a function of the determined temperatures of each of the selected electrolyser modules.

2. Method according to claim 1 , wherein with each electrolyser module being configured to adopt (i) an active state when the electrolyser module is supplied by the electric energy supply system, or (ii) an inactive state when the electrolyser module is not supplied by the electric energy supply system, the selecting of the electrolyser modules comprises determining a current number of active electrolyser modules.

3. Method according claim 2 , wherein when the current number of active electrolyser modules determined is equal to the number evaluated N e , then the selecting consists of selecting all the active electrolyser modules.

4. Method according to claim 2 , wherein the selecting the electrolyser modules comprises determining temperatures of at least some of the electrolyser modules.

5. Method according to claim 4 ,
wherein with the determined current number of active electrolyser modules being greater than the number evaluated N e , the temperatures determined during the selecting are those of the active electrolyser modules, and the electrolyser modules selected by the selection step correspond to the N e active electrolyser modules with the highest temperatures, and
wherein the supplying electrically of the electrolyser modules selected consists of supplying electrically only to the electrolyser modules selected.

6. Method according to claim 4 ,
wherein with the current number of active electrolyser modules determined being lower than the number evaluated N e , the temperatures determined during the selecting are those of the inactive electrolyser modules, and the electrolyser modules selected by the selecting correspond to the active electrolyser modules plus at least one inactive electrolyser module, the temperature of which determined during the selecting is the highest, and
wherein the supplying electrically of the electrolyser modules selected consists of supplying electrically only the electrolyser modules selected.

7. Method according to claim 1 , wherein the evaluating the suitable number N e of electrolyser modules to be used is calculated from the following equation:

NB

WHOLE
⁡

(

Pavailable

Pmax
⁢

⁢
_
⁢

⁢
module

)

+
1

where P available is the determined available electric power, P max _ module is the maximum power which each electrolyser module can receive, and NB WHOLE is the function which provides a whole value of the ratio

Pavailable
Pmax_module

.

8. Method according to claim 1 , comprising determining the distribution of the determined available electric power,
wherein the determining the distribution comprises, for each electrolyser module selected:
determining a theoretical optimised coefficient of distribution of the determined available electric power, taking into account the determined temperature of the electrolyser module selected;
determining a real coefficient of distribution to be used for the electrolyser module selected, taking into account the corresponding theoretical optimised coefficient; and

wherein the step of determining the distribution comprises adjusting the real coefficients.

9. Method according to claim 8 ,
wherein a difference between each optimised theoretical coefficient and the corresponding real coefficient is minimized, and
wherein the minimisation takes into account the following constraints:
the sum of the real coefficients of the electrolyser modules selected is equal to 1;
for each electrolyser module selected, the corresponding real coefficient is less than, or equal to, the maximum power of the electrolyser module selected divided by the determined available electric power;
for each electrolyser module selected, the corresponding real coefficient is higher than, or equal to, a minimum power of the electrolyser module selected divided by the number evaluated N e .

10. Method according to claim 8 , wherein in the adjusting of the real coefficients, a difference between each optimised theoretical coefficient and the corresponding real coefficient is minimized.

11. Method according to claim 2 , wherein the evaluating the suitable number N e of electrolyser modules to be used is calculated from the following equation:

NB

WHOLE
⁡

(

Pavailable

Pmax
⁢

⁢
_
⁢

⁢
module

)

+
1

where P available is the determined available electric power, P max _ module is the maximum power which each electrolyser module can receive, and NB WHOLE is the function which provides a whole value of the ratio

Pavailable
Pmax_module

.

Assignees

• Commissariat Energie Atomique

Inventors

• Lopez Mathias
• Bourasseau Cyril

Classifications

• Y02E60/36

  Hydrogen production from non-carbon containing sources, e.g. by water electrolysis · CPC title

• Y02B90/14

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• H02J15/00

  Systems for storing electric energy specially adapted for power networks · CPC title

• Y02E60/366

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• C25B9/18

  Chemistry & Metallurgy · mapped topic