Pravin Sankhwar

SAIARD, United States

Title: Green Hydrogen for Fuelling Fuel Cells for Charging Electric Vehicles & DC Power Systems

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Biography

With a passion for optimizing the performances of the electrical power engineering industry, Dr. (hon.) Pravin Sankhwar brings an extensive amount of experience in engineering design and research. Holding a degree in master’s in electrical engineering from Michigan Tech, a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Malviya National Institute of Technology, and a PhD candidate at University of the Cumberlands, he combines academic knowledge with practical expertise to drive meaningful change in renewable energy industry. Throughout his career, Pravin Sankhwar has successfully delivered services in promoting energy efficiency, reduce carbon footprints, design power distribution systems, review research papers for major journals, judge student presentations and industry award events, and publish research articles. He believes in the power of collaboration and innovative thinking to address sustainable practices in the electrical power engineering industry.

Abstract

The processes involving green hydrogen generation from plastics by using thermochemical processes like pyrolysis and gasification. Then this derived hydrogen runs the fuel cell that produces electricity which can directly feed DC power to the charge the electric vehicles (EVs). Although this complex process has many challenges related to energy efficiency during the conversion processes starting from generation of hydrogen from thermochemical processes and hydrogen storage followed by fuelling the fuel cells and charging EV infrastructure. Simplistic conceptual modelling developed for this research demonstrates how an ecosystem of such process can be made feasible commercially. Green hydrogen generates from known techniques known through literature but harnessing hydrogen from plastics promises additional benefits from green-house-gas (GHG) emissions reduction. Overall feasibility of using green hydrogen using this methodology is not limited by possible cost inefficiency especially when there are savings gained from GHG emission reduction. EVs have been successful in becoming commercially viable because of high energy density Li-ion batteries. And therefore, research continues to optimize the performances with integration of renewable energy, and battery storage systems. This study adds another potential from green hydrogen which adds additional power source to the power grid especially motivated at reducing GHG emissions at the same time. Additionally, using direct current (DC) power generated from fuel-cell allows using it further directly to run EV charger at DC input voltages. Especially, designed systems to run at DC voltages throughout the power system is a potential available through combination of high voltage direct current (HVDC), renewable energy, DC-DC converters, DC EV charger, and many other supporting components. The plastics have been major contributor for environmental wastes across the globe, been able to generate useful green hydrogen from them by eliminating any wasteful process by optimizing becomes a topic of exploration from literature review for this study. The mathematical model is a stepping stone in working towards a novel and innovative process of green hydrogen production to run electric vehicle charging infrastructure. The limitations of the study would be governed by effective establishment of locations where waste management services are performed (for example, landfills & so on).