Investigation of hydrogen production by using concentrated photovoltaic/thermal hybrid collector with spectral beam splitting

Hydrogen is considered the future synthetic fuel and energy carrier due to its high energy content and environmentally friendly nature. However, hydrogen production from renewable energy sources often suffers from low efficiencies and high costs, leading to its predominant production from fossil sources. The key to the transition to a clean and sustainable environment is to use renewable energy sources with high efficiency. In this thesis, a concentrated photovoltaic/thermal (SBS-CPV/T) hybrid collector with spectral beam splitter was proposed to obtain hydrogen from solar energy at high efficiency, and the hydrogen production potential at high temperatures was investigated. The collector, employing a triple-junction GaInP/GaInAs/Ge CPV solar cell designed for 765X concentration under a Cassegrain-type configuration, was evaluated under the climatic conditions of Elazığ province in terms of thermal and electrical conversion efficiencies, which were found to be 2.86% and 32.39%, respectively. In the case of hydrogen production with a solid oxide electrolyzer, the total hydrogen conversion efficiency of the SBS-CPV/T hybrid collector was calculated as 33.3%. These results indicate that the proposed Cassegrain-type SBS-CPV/T hybrid collector offers approximately three times higher efficiency compared to traditional PV-electrolyzer systems. This demonstrates the promising potential of the Cassegrain-type SBS-CPV/T hybrid collector for hydrogen production.