Evaluating the materials used for hydrogen production based on photoelectrochemical technology

Abstract

Hydrogen as a CO2-free fuel has been considered as a serious alternative for problematic fossil fuels in recent decades Photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is a developing solar-based technology for hydrogen production. In this study, some possible options for upgrading this technology from R&D stage to prototype stage through a material selection approach is investigated. For these purpose, TOPSIS algorithm through a multi criteria decision making (MCDM) approach was utilized for evaluating different (PEC)-based hydrogen production materials. TiO2, WO3 and BiVO4 as three semiconductors known for their PEC application, were selected as alternatives in this decision-making study. After defining a set of criteria, which were assessed based on similar studies and experts' visions, a group of ten PEC-experts including university professors and PhD students were asked to fill the questionnaires. The eight criteria considered in this study are include "Study Cost", "Synthesis Simplicity", "Facility & Availability", "Deposition capability on TCO", "Modifiability", "Commercialization in H2 production", "Physical and Chemical Durability" and "Eco-friendly Fabrication". The final TOPSIS results indicates that TiO2 is selected as the best semiconductor for further investments in order to upgrade the PEC-based hydrogen production technology from R&D level to prototype stage. ©2019. CBIORE-IJRED. All rights reserved

Cascaded Feed Forward Multilayer Neural Network based MPPT Controller for Improving the Performance of Photovoltaic System

“…The quick growth in energy consumption, CO2 emissions and the global inadequacy of demand and supply is due to the increasing rate of population growth and levels of urbanization [1] [2]. Under the environmental concern like shortage of energy and pollution, RES such as Solar and Wind are the most suitable replaced energy sources which are presence the foremost energy of recent power systems.…”