Colloquium: Merlijn Hunik (FPT)

In order to decarbonize the industry, green hydrogen production will need to be increased. An option for green hydrogen production is to use electrolysers and wind energy in an offshore location. This thesis aims to improve the design of offshore wind based hydrogen production by optimizing the design with the use of Multidisciplinary Design Optimization. The question is answered with the use of a modular design including desalination, hydrogen production, hydrogen compression and transportation with a hydrogen pipeline. The main conclusion from this thesis is that the design problem included non-linearities. The complex optimization problem could be solved by using a sequential differential evolution algorithm. The resulting optimized design showed that optimizing the pressure of the electrolyser could result in lower work requirements for the compressor and desalination and increasing hydrogen production.

Supervisor: Prof.dr. D.A. (Dominic) von Terzi