Calculation of the energy required to produce hydrogen and to produce electricity from hydrogen (hydrogen fuel cell)hydrogen calculation energy production and yield


Principle

Hydrogen is not exactly a source of energy (like the wind or the sun) but rather an energy vector: you need a source of energy to produce hydrogen with an electrolyser, then generally it is necessary to store the hydrogen produced, and finally to use a fuel cell which allows the hydrogen to be transformed into electricity. One talks about the Power-H2-Power chain.
The online calculator below allows you to estimate the energy required to produce a certain quantity of H2 in kg, but also to calculate the electricity produced by a hydrogen fuel cell (PAC). The software also gives the possibility to determine the efficiency chain of the power-H2-power conversion process (global yield).

Calculation of the energy (electricity) required to produce hydrogen

Enter your values ​​in the white boxes, the results are displayed in the green boxes.

Electrolysis

Quantity of hydroge to produce : kg 
Production ratio : kWhe/kgH2  Value between 51 et 67 kWhe/kGH2, default value 56 kWhe/kGH2.

Energy required (electricity) = kWhe

Compression/storage

bars
Energy required for compression (storage) = kWhe

Volume of pressurized hydrogen = m3

Calculation of the energy produced by an hydrogen fuel cell (H2 fuel cell)

Production ratio of hydrogen fuel cell : kWhe/kgH2, Default value 16 kWhe/kgH2.

Performance ratio of the DC/DC converter : Default value 0.98, or 2% of losses.

Performance ratio of the DC/AC converter : Default value 0.95, or 5% of losses.

Electricity production : kWhe

Global efficiency of the power-H2-power chain : %

Sources

Efficiency of the hydrogen chain - Technical datasheet - Case of the "Power-to-H2-to-Power" - ADEME - 2020 - Fr
Technical datasheet Hydrogen - ADEME - 2020
Storage density of hydrogen - Wikipedia:
Density of hydrogen