Design of an Electrical Power Take-Off for a Wave Energy Converter for Hydrogen Production

In this work, the design of a linear electric generator and an electronic power converter to be integrated into a system to produce hydrogen by exploiting sea waves’ motion is described. The results of Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations for the design of the linear induction generator are presented and discussed along with relevant considerations that will guide the future fabrication of the prototype. Additionally, a novel topological approach for the AC/DC converter, necessary to interface the linear generator with the electrolyzer, is presented. The proposed architecture is able to manage the voltages produced by the harvesting system which are characterized by random phase and amplitude that vary significantly over time. By converting every individual voltage into a unidirectional current before combining them, the proposed converter prevents internal losses due to destructive interactions and increases the overall efficiency of the harvesting process. Moreover, thanks to the specially designed feed-forward corrective action, which mathematically inverts the transfer function of the converter, it is possible to obtain a stable output voltage, even in case of large variations in the input signals.