Design, Construction and Commissioning of a Green Precinct Micro-Laboratory for Hydrogen Research

QUT has established a green precinct micro-laboratory at the Gardens Point Campus. The precinct brings together researchers in science and engineering to study the efficiency of primary power to electrolyser input power, energy management systems, digital twins, water purity impact on electrolysis, new materials integration and testing of electrolysers and fuel cells at near real-world conditions. A key driver for this laboratory is to test and model the integration of systems with an objective to evaluate scale-up potential prior to design and implementation at scale. <br><br>The precinct houses a hybrid hydrogen and power microgrid that is a test bed for integrating technologies and performing systems analysis. Primary input power to the laboratory is via the building power network that has 200kW solar power installed. The precinct includes a 12Vdc microgrid powered from a 500Wdc solar emulator with MPPT as well as a 12Vdc, 720Wh lithium-ion battery for energy storage. Power conversion from DC to either DC or AC is available via a manual switch to power AC or DC versions of electrolysers. Hydrogen production is achieved via 500Wdc maximum water electrolysis with PEM and Alkaline versions available. A hydrogen gas panel and storage at 4bar includes gas sensors. A 150Wdc PEM fuel cell provides regenerative power to charge the battery when required. The hydrogen-electricity hybrid system is set up for extensive diagnostics from sensors, data acquisition system and analytics. <br><br>The precinct was commissioned in Q3 2022 and this presentation will describe advantages and operation of component systems within the precinct and some research results stemming from early use. <br><br>Acknowledgements: This project has been supported by internal QUT seed funding (IFE Catapult Scheme), partial support from ARENA (Contract no. 2018/RND012) and the FEnEx CRC (Project No. 21.RP2.0061).