Review of pem electrolyser and associated balance of plant system for green hydrogen generation

The energy transition is continuing at an unprecedented pace and scale, calling for new low carbon technologies. Green hydrogen is one among them and is considered fuel of the future. In mid to long term, usage of hydrogen will help India meeting emission goals under the Paris agreement and will also reduce import bills from fossils fuel. In short term selection of right type of technology both at upstream and downstream needs to be matured. This paper considers review of Hydrogen generation through PEM electrolyser with emphasis on study of balance of plant equipment basic design, control concept & safety requirement. Balance of plant equipment which can be divided into subsystems, its optimisation saves on space, weight & auxiliary power consumption and ultimately adds to the enhanced efficiency of the hydrogen generator. Present practice at small and mid size hydrogen generator is to have BOP systems dedicated to individual hydrogen generator. As the scale of hydrogen generation is supposed to increase exponentially, a common BOP system with larger capacity and redundancy configuration feeding to various array of hydrogen generator is envisaged. Higher capacity BOP equipment / systems will provide window of opportunity for systems engineer for optimization, value engineering leading to overall efficiency improvement and operational flexibility for different combination of hydrogen generators.