Within the scope of the present research project, questions regarding the future and innovative use of wind energy for the production of hydrogen are to be identified, which result from the coupling of a wind turbine (WT) or a wind farm (WP) to water electrolyzers (WEL).
The physical and chemical conversion processes occurring in this process chain will be mapped using numerical and experimental models. The virtual coupling of the mathematical calculation model of a water electrolyzer to a numerical model of a wind turbine makes it possible to simulate the process of energy conversion under normal as well as special weather situations, wind conditions and long-term load cycles in island operation and thus to identify potential questions and scientific challenges in the context of possible interaction effects of both systems.
In addition to the purely numerical approach, the coupling of an experimental simulation model of a wind farm in a turbulent environment with a numerical model of the associated water electrolyzer will be investigated for future research projects. The aim here is to be able to explore the highly dynamic interaction between electrical power production of a wind farm and water electrolysis realistically under controllable and reproducible turbulent wind conditions. While previous studies primarily investigated the use of water electrolysis to smooth the wind power feed-in, this project will consider the approach in which wind power and water electrolysis are strongly coupled for the economically optimized production of large quantities of hydrogen.