International Conference on Advanced Renewable Energy Systems (ICARES’22)

Algeria - December 18 -20, 2022

Wind-Fuel Cell power system for supplying isolated sites

Abdelghani Meziane1, Fares Meziane2 and Salah Zouaoui1
Structural Mechanics and Energetics Laboratory (LMSE), Department of
1

Mechanical Engineering, Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi Ouzou PB 17 RP,

Tizi Ouzou, Algeria 15000
2
Renewable Energy Development Center, CDER-Algiers, Algeria
[email protected]

Abstract.
The context of this paper is based on the study of self-contained hybrid Wind-Electrolyzer-Fuel Cell
(WG-FC) systems. This technology is interesting for the good ecological and economic development of
the country and also to get to know the energy needs of the isolated regions of the great south of Algeria,
while preserving our environment because its use involves a considerable gain in the quantities of carbon
dioxide (CO2) emitted into the atmosphere. The approach adopted for the elaboration of this work is
based on two approaches, the first consists on studying the wind potential of these four isolated regions
(Tinfouye, Belkbir, Tabelbala, Tindouf) from wind data spread over a period of 15 years (2004-2018)
provided by the National Office of Meteorology (O.N.M) for a height of 70 m with a high-power wind
turbine from the ENERCON family, namely E33. The second consists on using the Matlab Simulink
software to study the dynamic behavior of the hybrid system in the simultaneous production of energy
and hydrogen for the power supply of these isolated sites. The interest of such a coupling is to be able to
produce energy on the spot, hence the autonomy of the system, and especially to have it during periods of
lack, indeed, the risk remains of having an excess energy at certain times and not enough at others. It is
therefore a storage system, that's to say storing excess energy when it exists and restoring it when needed.
Finally, the simulation results obtained for an autonomous WG-FC hybrid system, as well as the study of
the wind potential of the sites show that for the four isolated sites the load is completely covered by a 330
kW aerogenerator and that they are interesting to exploit.
Key words: Hybrid system, Electricity production, Renewable energy, Wind, Storage, Autonomous, Electrolyzer,
Fuel cell, Hydrogen, Matlab Simulink.

A. Introduction
The exploitation of renewable energy is considered as an alternative of production in the electrical energy
systems of the world today. However, their use is limited.
To overcome this limit, the solution to be retained, in particular for isolated sites, is the combination of
several sources. Indeed, with the development of fuel cell and water electrolysis technologies, electrolytic
hydrogen is becoming a pillar of the energy transition based on the development of hybrid systems, that's to say
coupling wind turbines and electrolyzers for the production of hydrogen, and storage systems (hydrogen (H 2)
tanks and batteries) and fuel cells for the production of electricity. Algeria continues to make enormous efforts to
provide its population with access to energy, however the country is experiencing a very slow start to the energy
transition, in fact it has only achieved 1.8 % of the national energy program. renewable energy in 2020 [1].
Despite its possession of the largest deposit of solar energy and a considerable wind potential, shown by
numerous studies carried out previously, we quote [2,3 and 4], however it remains among the last country to
have developed renewable energies, in particular in isolated regions. Works like [5 and 6] have been done on
hybrid systems and prove to be a common solution to the incredible increase in CO 2 emissions and electrical
power supply in isolated areas. Other research already carried out also on this subject among them we find those
of [7 and 8] whose study was carried out on hybrid wind power / electrolyzer / off-grid fuel cell systems, on its
sufficiency and reliability to answer to energy needs. Or an example of an autonomous Microgrid with a solar
PV-battery-hydrogen hybrid that demonstrates that the battery-hydrogen hybrid renewable energy storage system
is a promising solution [9, 10].
Some research has been conducted with Simulink models, in [11], a hydrogen-based energy system model
created in Simulink was presented. In [12 and 13] a Simulink model of an energy system composed of a PV
system, a PEM electrolyzer and a hydrogen storage system was exposed and in [14 and 15] another model of
hybrid energy system in Matlab/Simulink based on solar energy, battery (lithium-ion or lead) and hydrogen has
been studied.

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 Abdelghani Meziane1, Fares Meziane2 & Salah Zouaoui1

This article has been organized basing on the work already done by [16] on the development of a hybrid
system for the simultaneous production of electricity and hydrogen for the power supply of an isolated site in the
south of Algeria. The first section presents the methodology followed for the realization of this article, the
description of the four sites chosen with their geographical locations as well as the mathematical and graphic
description of the components of the system. Section two presents the interpretation and analysis of the results
obtained in our Matlab Simulink simulation. Finally, the last section concludes the results.

B. Methodology
The adopted approaches are based on two parts, the first consists in studying the wind potential of these four
isolated regions (Tinfouye, Belkbir, Tabelbala, Tindouf) at a height of 70 m using wind data spread over a period
of 15 years (2004-2018) provided by the National Office of Meteorology (O.N.M), as well as a high-power wind
turbine of the ENERCON family, namely E33, and the second consists in using the software Matlab Simulink to
study the dynamic behavior of the system.

C. Study areas and wind data

In this present study, the data of four distributions which are isolated on the Algerian territory were analyzed
(we cite :Tinfouye, Belkbir, Tabelbala, Tindouf) ,from wind data spread over a period of 15 years (2004-2018).
The geographical coordinates of the studied areas are illustrated on Table 1.
Table 1. Geographical coordinates of the sites.
Site Latitude Longitude Altitude
Tinfouye 28.43 N
o
7.55oE 475 m
Belkbir 27.84oN 0.19oW 278 m
Tabelbala 29.42 N
o
3.25 W
o 564 m
Tindouf 27.67 N
o
8.13 W
o 431

D. System description
A model of wind-fuel cell hybrid generation system, developed under Simulink environment is illustrated in
figure 1, consisting of six main blocks.

Fig.1. System components.

When the electrical power produced by the wind turbine is greater than the instantaneous load requirement,
the excess power is stored in the form of hydrogen. Whereas when the power delivered is lower than the
charging requirement, the lack of power is delivered by the fuel cell consuming the previously stored hydrogen.

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 Abdelghani Meziane1, Fares Meziane2 & Salah Zouaoui1

E. Wind turbine
The wind turbine model used is Enercon E33 with a diameter of 33.4 m. For a wind speed of 12.5 m/s, it
produces a power of 330 kW. The figure 2 above represents the power curve of the wind turbine obtained from
the manufacturer.

Fig.2. Power curve of the Enercon E33 wind turbine.

The following figure represents the wind turbine model developed using Simulink.

Fig.3. Wind turbine model.

F. Electrolyzer model
The rate of hydrogen production in an electrolyzer is given by the following law [17]:
n ղ F ×nC × i e
H 2= (1)
2× F
Where: i e is the electrolyzer current. nC is the number of electrolyzer cells in series. ղ F is the Faraday
efficiency which is the ratio between the real and theoretical quantity of hydrogen produced in the electrolyzer, it
can be given by following law [18]:

ղ F =95.5 × exp
( 0.09 75.5
ie
− 2
ie ) (2)

According to the two laws (1) and (2), a simple electrolyzer model is developed using Simulink and shown in
Figure 4.

Fig.4. Electrolyzer model.

G. Fuel cell model
The parameters of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) system are given in the following Table
[19]:

Table 2. Fuel cell system parameters.

FC model parameters
Activation voltage constant (B) 0.04777 A−1
Activation voltage constant (C) 0.0136 V
Faraday’s constant (F) 96484600 Ckmol −1
Hydrogen time constant (τ H 2 ) 3.37 s

Hydrogen valve constant ( K H 2 ) 4.22 ×10

−6

Kr constant 1.8449 ×10

−6

N o load voltage ( E0 ) 0.6 V

Number of cells ( N 0 ) 712

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 Abdelghani Meziane1, Fares Meziane2 & Salah Zouaoui1

Oxygen time constant (τ O 2 ) 6.74 s

Oxygen valve constant ( K O2 )

−5
2.11 ×10 kmol/s.atm

FC internal resistance ( R∫ ¿¿ ) 0.00303 Ω

FC absolute temperature (T) 343 K

Universal gas constant (R) 8314.47 J/kmol. K
Utilization factor (U) 0.8
Water time constant (τ O 2 ) 18.418 s

Water valve constant ( K H 2O )

−6
7.716 ×10 kmol/s.atm

The quantity of hydrogen and oxygen consumed in the fuel cell depends on the input and output flow rates,
the current extracted from the fuel cell and also on the volume of the electrodes.
The different partial pressures are given as follows [20]:
1
KH (3)
PH = × ( ṁ¿H −2× K r × I )
2

2
τ H × S+1
2
2

1
KO ¿ (4)
PO = × ( ṁO −K r × I )
2

2
τ O × S +1
2
2

1
KH O (5)
P H O= × (2 × K r × I )
2

2
τ H O × S+1
2

The thermodynamic potential E is given by the following law [21]:

[ ( )]
1
2
R ×T PH × P O2 (6)
E= E0 + × log 2

2×F PH O 2

The ohmic voltage loss in the fuel cell is given by [17]:

ղ ohmic =I × R∫ ¿ ¿ (7)
The parametric equation of the overvoltage due to the activation resistance is given by the following law [17]:
ղ act =B × log ( C × I ) (8)
The cell output voltage can be determined from the combined effect of thermodynamics, mass transport,
kinetics and ohmic resistance, it is defined as follows [20]:
V =E−ղ act −ղ ohmic (9)
The power of the fuel cell is a function of current and voltage, it is defined by the following law [20]:
P=V ¿× I ¿ (10)
From the various equations that we presented previously (partial pressures, thermodynamic potential, ohmic
voltage, etc.) and the variation of the various parameters given in table 3, we produced a fuel cell model using
Matlab Simulink, presented in the following figure:

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 Abdelghani Meziane1, Fares Meziane2 & Salah Zouaoui1

Fig.5. Fuel cell model.

H. Results analysis and interpretations

A. Statistical study of wind data
This study was performed using Matlab. Wind data ranging from 2004 to 2018, provided by the
national office of meteorology (ONM) were used.
a) Annual analysis
In this part we present the results relating to the overall study on our study sites, at the level of the measuring
mast at a height of 10 m. The study includes the histogram of the wind speed adjusted by the Weibull
distribution (Figure 6) and the seasonal distribution of the wind direction (Figure 7), as well as the average
speed, power density, energy density and the values of the two Weibull parameters given in Table 3.

Table 3. Variation of the different parameters at 10 m from the ground.

Locations/Settings Vmoy (m/s) K C (m/s) DP (W/m²) DE (KWh/m²)
Tinfouye 4.92 2.16 5.5 129 1130.04
Belkbir 5.51 1.96 6.2 200 1752

Tabelbala 4.81 1.26 5.1 239 2093.64

Tindouf 5.57 2.16 6.4 194 1699.44

Weibull distribution at 10 m
The annual wind speed histograms of Tinfouye, Belkbir, Tabelbala and Tindouf at 10 m, fitted by the two-
parameter Weibull distribution, are shown in Figure 6. These histograms indicate that:
At Tinfouye, the wind speed covers a range of variation reaching 18 m/s. The high value of the scale
parameter, C = 5.5 m/s, means that this site is windy. We also note that the value of the Weibull shape parameter
K is around 2.16, which corresponds to stable and regular winds. The average annual wind speed is equal to 4.92
m/s, and the average annual power density is 129 W/m², with an average annual energy density of 1130.04
kWh/m².
In the Belkbir region, there is a range of variation reaching 20 m/s. The high value of the scale parameter, C =
6.2 m/s, means that this site is very windy. We also note that the value of the Weibull shape parameter K is
around 1.96, which corresponds to stable and regular winds. The average annual wind speed is equal to 5.51 m/s,
and the average annual power density is 200 W/m², with an average annual energy density of 1752 kWh/m².
Also, for Tabelbala, we have a range of variation reaching 25 m/s. The high value of the scale parameter, C =
5.1 m/s, means that this site is windy. We also note that the value of the Weibull shape parameter K is around

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 Abdelghani Meziane1, Fares Meziane2 & Salah Zouaoui1

1.26, which corresponds to stable and regular winds. The average annual wind speed is equal to 4.81 m/s, and
the average annual power density is 239 W/m², with an average annual energy density of 2093.64 kWh/m².
Finally, in the Tindouf region, there is a range of variation reaching 30 m/s. The high value of the scale
parameter, C = 6.4 m/s, means that this site is very windy. We also note that the value of the Weibull shape
parameter K is around 2.16, which corresponds to stable and regular winds. The average annual wind speed is
equal to 5.57 m/s, and the average annual power density is 194 W/m², with an average annual energy density of
1699.44 kWh/m².
This implies that the annual wind resource available in these sites is therefore significant, but according to
Table 3 and Figure 6, we see that the Tabelbala site is more favorable for the implementation of our hybrid
system.

Fig.6. Weibull distribution at 10 m.

Wind roses
The analysis of the statistical data made it possible to determine the rose of the winds which is the graphic
representation of the frequency of the wind and its direction. The results obtained (see Figure 7) show that:
In Tinfouye, the prevailing wind direction is east-southeast (ESE) with a frequency of 15.3%, followed by
two predominances north-northeast (NNE) and east-northeast (ENE) with a frequency of 14% and 13.8%
respectively.
In the Belkbir region, the north-northeast (NNE) sector accounts for 20.9% of the wind frequencies, while the
east-northeast (ENE) is the predominant direction with 15.2% frequency.
In the Tabelbala region, the east-northeast direction remains dominant with 15.7%, and a predominance in the
east-southeast (ESE) direction with a percentage of 11.9%.
In Tindouf, the prevailing wind direction is west-northwest (WNW) with a frequency of 23% followed by a
predominance west (W) with a frequency of 21.2%.
This implies that Tabelbala is the most favorable site for our study but the others are also profitable.

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 Abdelghani Meziane1, Fares Meziane2 & Salah Zouaoui1

Fig.7. wind roses.

b) Monthly analysis
We note that the average monthly speeds are acceptable and even high for the 4 sites, and also, they vary
considerably depending on the month.
Note also that the month of June corresponds to the value of the maximum average speed of the Tabelbala
site with 8.34 m/s. Moreover, the period which recorded the highest wind speed is clearly from March to April.
The curves in Figure 8 show the average speeds as a function of the months measured at the level of the
measurement mast at 10 m from the ground for the 4 sites.

Fig.8. Monthly variation of the average wind speed at 10 m from the ground.

B. Wind speed data

Wind speed data was taken over a period of one year at a height of 10 m above ground level. These data were
calculated at 70 m hub height for the four sites namely Tinfouye, Belkbir, Tabelbala and Tindouf using the
power law (Justus 1978), at this height the average wind speed becomes 11.27 m/ s, 12.37 m/s, 11.39 m/s and
11.87 m/s respectively, while at 10 m it is only 4.92 m/s, 5.51 m/s, 4.81 m/s and 5.57 m/s respectively, the
evolution of the wind speed at 70 m is shown in Figure 9.

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 Abdelghani Meziane1, Fares Meziane2 & Salah Zouaoui1

Fig.9. Wind speed at 70 m.

C. User electrical requirements

The user power demand at each of the four sites is shown in Figure 10. The peak load of 214.67 kW was
observed in late January and a minimum of 27.23 kW in May. The highest demand there exists between January
and March, as well as November and December, while relatively average load requirements are found during the
rest of the time of the year.

Fig.10. the charge of the 10 houses of the different sites.

The wind energy available at a height of 70 m above the ground is in continuous variation during the year, the
average wind power for the four sites namely Tinfouye, Belkbir, Tabelbala and Tindouf is approximately 251.18
kW, 270.64 kW, 223.85 kW and 238.33 kW respectively, this power peaks at around 375.52 kW, 380.65 kW,
381.18 kW and 380.89 kW respectively. The lowest wind power that characterizes the sites is about 12.71 kW, -
12.28 kW, -0.47 kW and -21.31 kW respectively, as shown in Figure 11.

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 Abdelghani Meziane1, Fares Meziane2 & Salah Zouaoui1

Fig.11. Wind electric power.

Figure 12 shows that the production of hydrogen depends on the current of the input electrolyzer, the quantity
of hydrogen produced increases with the settling of the current, the production of hydrogen is all the more
important as the needs of the load are all the less weak. The average amount of hydrogen produced from
Tinfouye, Belkbir, Tabelbala and Tindouf is about 0.064 kmol/s, 0.0676 kmol/s, 0.0566 kmol/s and 0.0601
kmol/s respectively.

Fig.12. Hydrogen production.

The fuel cell consumes only the quantity of hydrogen necessary to supply the current required by the load.
Hydrogen consumption is high from November to February.
The quantities of hydrogen are almost nil during the periods when the turbine satisfies the energy needs of the
site supplied, as is the case from March to October. As shown in Figures 13.

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 Abdelghani Meziane1, Fares Meziane2 & Salah Zouaoui1

Fig.13. Hydrogen consumption.

D. Conclusion
The use of renewable energy is growing rapidly because of the production of electricity which is needed so
far , hence new systems have been put in place such as the hybrid (autonomous system which consists of
combining these renewable energies with other energy sources such as electricity). hydrogen which can be
produced by electrolysis of water, then stored and finally reused by a fuel cell to produce green electrical energy.
According to the wind data provided by the National Office of Meteorology (O.N.M) for a period of 15 years
(2004-2018), those four isolated regions of Algeria (Tinfouye, Belkbir, Tabelbala, Tindouf) seem to have an
interesting potential wind with an average annual velocities of 4.92 m/s, 5.51 m/s, 4.81 m/s and 5.57 m/s
respectively at 10 m above the ground.
We therefore deduce that wind farms with stand-alone hybrid systems of the Wind-Electrolyzer-Fuel Cell
(WG-FC) type are likely to be installed at these four sites.
To study the dynamic behavior of this whole system, a simulation program using Matlab Simulink was
developed, and an example of simulation was applied to the four sites mentioned above whose meteorological
data are available.

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