Cluster allocation strategy of multi-electrolyzers in wind-hydrogen system considering electrolyzer degradation under fluctuating operating conditions

The intermittency of wind power is widely acknowledged to have a detrimental impact on the lifespan of electrolyzers in large-scale hydrogen production plants. The large differences in the lifespan of each electrolyzer can affect the orderly progression of hydrogen production, further causing production challenge for the downstream products such as ammonia. While considerable research has been conducted on the power allocation strategies for multi-electrolyzers system, there remains a gap in addressing the degradation equilibrium among multi-electrolyzers from a quantitative perspective. The present study proposes an allocation strategy that incorporates variations in temperature, hydrogen-to-oxygen (HTO), and oxygen-to-hydrogen (OTH) impurities into the power distribution framework. A predictive model is developed to assess voltage degradation in each electrolyzer, accounting for the impacts of hot and cold starts and load fluctuations. Case studies are performed to compare the proposed strategy against start-stop and rotation strategies. The findings indicate that the total voltage degradation for each electrolyzer is approximately 290 μV, effectively reducing the degradation discrepancy among them. Additionally, the temperatures of the four electrolyzers are controlled around 360 K, contributing to enhanced system stability. As a result, the hydrogen production efficiency under the proposed strategy reaches 69 %, reflecting a 4 % improvement over current methods.