Green electricity and medical electrolytic oxygen from solar energy - A sustainable solution for rural hospitals
Simon Koumi Ngoh, Jacques Francis Bakehe, Prosper Edouma fils
Abstract
The objective of this paper is to design and simulate for rural areas isolated from the electricity grid, a system based on solar energy for the optimal supply of green electricity and medical oxygen to a hospital. The system sized to produce 20 Nm3/day is constituted of a 37.46 kW photovoltaic farm, a 15.47 kW electrolyzer, and a 15.47 kW fuel cell. The simulation of the Photovoltaic system is performed using the single diode model solved with the Lambert function defined in MATLAB Software. The daily production of oxygen and hydrogen during the sunniest day of the month is respectively 20.81 Nm3/day and 41.61 Nm3/day. The daily energy that can be stored is relevant to the hydrogen production and an electricity storage capacity of 124.89 kWh is feasible. During the least sunny day of the least sunny month, the daily production of oxygen and hydrogen is respectively, 7.72 Nm3/day and 15.44 Nm3/day. The recorded values prove that the system sized can constitute a viable solution to ensure the permanent supply a green electricity and oxygen to the hospital with good energy storage capacity.