Techno-Economic Analysis of Pulsed Power Electrolysis
Electrolysis stacks often exhibit suboptimal performance under constant dc power due to effects such as gas bubbles, making pulsed electrolysis a promising strategy for improving efficiency. However, additional electronic components are required to generate pulsed power, adding cost to the system. Therefore, the cost effectiveness of pulsed electrolysis relative to performance needs to be evaluated to justify the costs. Accordingly, this study presents a techno-economic analysis supported by a case study based on a simple pulsed power topology for large-scale systems. The analysis shows that, in our case study, a modest efficiency gain of 0.8% is enough to justify the additional cost, which is significantly lower than the efficiency enhancement (> 20%) reported in literature. Hence, pulsed electrolysis can be considered a viable solution for enhancing performance of large-scale electrolysis systems.