Water electrolysis will be used to produce renewable hydrogen for energy storage and Power-to-X applications in the future renewable-energy-based energy systems. Therefore, the energy efficiency of hydrogen production will probably become a major issue. In this study, the effect of practical supply power converters on the specific energy consumption ofMW-scale alkaline electrolyzers is studied and compared with an ideal DC power supply. The current quality and the stack specific energy consumption are studied in the case of traditional thyristor rectifiers and a transistor-based converter. The stack specific energy consumption is analyzed based on the simulated current waveforms and the electrical equivalent circuit of the electrolyzer stack. It is found that the transistor-based converter offers up to 14% lower electrolyzer stack specific energy consumption than the 6-pulse thyristor rectifier and up to 9.2% lower electrolyzer stack specific energy consumption than the 12-pulse thyristor rectifier as the current varies between 5000A and 1000A. The simulated change in the stack specific energy consumption of the MW-scale alkaline water electrolyzer outweighs the losses occurring in the rectifiers. Further, selection of the AC voltage level may have a more adverse effect on the stack specific energy consumption with the thyristor rectifier topologies compared with the transistor-based topologies.

The design process of direct-driven permanent-magnet (PM) synchronous machines (PMSMs) for a full electric 4 × 4 sports car is presented. The rotor structure of the machine consists of two PM layers embedded inside the rotor laminations, thus resulting in some inverse saliency, where the q-axis inductance is larger than the d-axis one. An integer slot stator winding was selected to fully take advantage of the additional reluctance torque. The performance characteristics of the designed PMSMs were calculated by applying a 2-D finite-element method. Cross saturation between the d- and q-axes was taken into account in the calculation of the synchronous inductances. The calculation results are validated by measurements.

Fast methods to estimate iron losses of the permanent magnet traction motor during the drive cycle of the electrical vehicle are compared. The methods use the iron loss information calculated by a finite-element analysis as a function of rotational speed both at no load and with a short-circuited stator to take into account the variable frequency and field weakening of the traction motor. The effect of iron losses on the optimal current components, providing the maximum efficiency, is studied. Several methods yield a good accuracy even based on the no-load iron loss only, but the accuracy can be improved especially in deep field weakening by including the short-circuit iron loss information in the analysis.