article · Clean Technologies
Proton exchange membrane electrolysers split water into hydrogen and oxygen using electrical power, supported by direct current converters and dedicated control systems to maintain operational stability and safety. Electrical modelling approaches encompass empirical and semi-empirical techniques spanning both static and dynamic behaviours. Associated sub-models forecast critical operational parameters, including operating temperature, hydrogen and oxygen flow rates, gas pressure, and overall energy efficiency. Selecting appropriate direct current power converters requires balancing electrical efficiency, current ripple, voltage conversion ratios, and fault tolerance during switch failures. Control strategies for integrated converter and electrolyser setups focus on achieving robustness, system reliability, online parameter identification, and adaptive regulation. Evaluating these technical components highlights current strengths and limitations across the field, outlining open challenges for designing resilient hydrogen production architectures.
Hydrogen generation through water electrolysis is central to clean energy transitions, yet electrolysers demand precise power electronics and controls to function safely and efficiently. Examining models, power converters, and control techniques helps engineers and researchers identify dependable designs, mitigate hardware failure risks, and improve overall energy conversion performance across renewable power installations.
This work provides design insights for power electronics manufacturers, control engineers, and system integrators developing commercial hydrogen production equipment. Because the content assesses existing literature on theoretical models, converter topologies, and control schemes rather than a tested hardware prototype, it represents early-stage technical evaluation that can guide future industrial equipment engineering.
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The main component of the hydrogen production system is the electrolyzer (EL), which is used to convert electrical energy and water into hydrogen and oxygen. The power converter supplies the EL, and the controller is used to ensure the global stability and safety of the overall system. This review aims to investigate and analyze each one of these components: Proton Exchange Membrane Electrolyzer (PEM EL) electrical modeling, DC/DC power converters, and control approaches. To achieve this desired result, a review of the literature survey and an investigation of the PEM EL electrical modeling of the empirical and semi-empirical, including the static and dynamic models, are carried out. In addition, other sub-models used to predict the temperature, gas flow rates (H2 and O2), hydrogen pressure, and energy efficiency for PEM EL are covered. DC/DC power converters suitable for PEM EL are discussed in terms of efficiency, current ripple, voltage ratio, and their ability to operate in the case of power switch failure. This review involves analysis and investigation of PEM EL control strategies and approaches previously used to achieve control objectives, robustness, and reliability in studying the DC/DC converter-PEM electrolyzer system. The paper also highlights the online parameter identification of the PEM electrolyzer model and adaptive control issues. Finally, a discussion of the results is developed to emphasize the strengths, weaknesses, and imperfections of the literature on this subject as well as proposing ideas and challenges for future work.
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DOI: 10.3390/cleantechnol5020028
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