Constantly Functioning Adruino Based Solar

Tracker Enabled Solar Panels Coupled With

Hydrogen Fuel Cell
K.S.Shri Vijay Kumar
Department of Electrical and
Electronics Engineering,
RMD Engineering College,
Kavaraipettai, Chennai, India.
shrivijaykumar93@gmail.com

Y.S.Sri Harsha
Department of Electrical and
Electronics Engineering,
RMD Engineering College,
Kavaraipettai, Chennai, India.
sriharsha9992@gmail.com

Department of Electrical and

Electronics Engineering,
RMD Engineering College,
Kavaraipettai, Chennai, India.
blatha2000@yahoo.co

Silicon is also found in many organic compounds,

notably the sand that is quite abundant on earth. But the
creation of solar panels has always proposed a
challenge as the separation of silica from sand is a
costly affair .Currently, more efficient processes such as
vibrating screen technique has made this process quite
cheap and hence investment in solar panels is a real
smart way to access renewable power .

Abstract--- Our world now is largely depending on fossil

fuels which are depleting quickly and there is an
impending need to use alternative mechanisms to power
our automobiles to ensure both locomotion of mankind
and sustenance of earth are achieved. Though extensive
research has been carried out in the area of Green Energy,
a satisfying method to fetch the ever-increasing needs of
mankind has not been achieved. In our proposed paper,
weve intended to use solar tracker combined with
hydrogen fuel cell for satisfying the necessary energy
requirements. Though, the solar tracker is already
available now, its ability to produce the required power
under all conditions has always been a question. In our
method, were utilizing two solar panels to optimize the
amount of energy that is incident thereby supplying a
number of devices. This power that is obtained is then
further split and given to an hydrogen fuel cell which can
supply cars. Experts might worry about the hazardous
nature of the hydrogen fuel cell, but since we are using this
in an enclosed atmosphere within a car, this method is
absolutely safe for humans. An energy production is said
to be efficient when the following conditions are satisfied.
First, the input fuel should be abundant and easily
available. The second is that the output or exhaust should
be less harmful to the environment. Both the solar tracker
as well as the hydrogen fuel cell causes no harm
whatsoever to the environment and further the exhaust of
the cell is oxygen which is not harmful when released and
it can be combined with hydrogen to produce water. This
water can again be used as the input fuel. So the whole
process becomes recyclable and highly efficient.

Hydrogen is found in many organic compounds,

notably the hydrocarbons that make up many of our
fuels, such as gasoline, natural gas, methanol, and
propane. Hydrogen can be separated from hydrocarbons
through the application of heat - a process known as
reforming. Currently, most hydrogen is made this way
from natural gas. An electrical current can also be used
to separate water into its components of oxygen and
hydrogen. This process is known as hydrolysis In our
method, were using solar tracker to track and provide
the necessary energy that can be split and used for 1.
supplying an hydrogen fuel cell 2.supplying the local
equipments that can use this energy. This process is
more effective as we use a secondary panel to enhance
the output.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
The solar tracker mainly utilizes five LDRs which are
placed in a scattered fashion at various positions. The
LDRs are mainly used in order to note the position of
the sun at any instance of time and to direct maximum
intensity of the sun to the solar panels. The solar tracker
utilizes the LDRs to determine the direction in which
maximum rays from the sun is obtained and positions
itself accordingly. The power converted from the solar
input is fed directly to a bulb and this is in-turn made
incident to a secondary panel. This process not only
enhances the power output but also ensures that the full
intensity from the bulb is not wasted. By splitting the
power obtained from this process , we are able to feed a
hydrogen fuel cell and also other electrical appliances.
A fuel cell combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce

Index Terms Effective energy production, Solar

tracker, recyclable process, non polluting exhaust,
abundant input source.

I. INTRODUCTION
Solar energy is the most abundant form of energy that
has ever prevailed and tapping power from that ever
existing source has been a tedious process. The solar
tracker is an ideal equipment that can be utilized in
order to track the movement of the sun and obtain
power at a constant intensity.

c
978-1-4673-6126-2/13/$31.00 2013
IEEE

R.Eshwara Prasath

433

electricity, heat, and water. Fuel cells are often

compared to batteries. Both convert the energy
produced by a chemical reaction into usable electric
power. However, the fuel cell will produce electricity as
long as fuel (hydrogen) is supplied, never losing its
charge. Another major advantage is that hydrogen fuel
cell suffers minimal ageing factor thus ensuring that the
efficiency is not compromised.
Hydrogen fuel cells are the wave of the future. At least
that is what many would want you to believe. They
have a point because a hydrogen fuel cell is a novel way
to power a car. The car would require no gasoline, run
on hydrogen and its only waste would be water, a
natural and safe emission. However, it is not a perfect
science by any means and too many times there is talk
about all the great advantages without any discussion of
the disadvantages of hydrogen fuel cells.
With anything, there is going to be drawbacks. If it
were such a perfect technology, don't you think every
car would have one by now? Besides being expensive,
the hydrogen fuel cell creates certain problems that
haven't been completely tackled yet.
Here are the three main disadvantages of hydrogen fuel
cells:
1. It's big and cumbersome. Your gas tank already uses
a nice portion of your car, but a hydrogen fuel cell will
be three times bigger than a gas tank. But that is not that
all. The fuel cell has to be insulated to keep it safe and
protected.
2. Safety issues. Liquid hydrogen has the ability to
freeze air. There have also been reports of accidents
with the fuel cell itself. Sometimes a valve will get
plugged up when there is too much pressure in the cell.
The only place to go is out, and the cell explodes. There
is no way of knowing, yet, if this problem can be fixed,
but there are many working on it. In a car accident, the
tank might rupture, but the good news is the hydrogen
will evaporate quickly. However, it is a more serious
condition in a closed area such as a garage.
3. The hydrogen evaporates. Strange, but true. The
insulation is not a perfect process and the hydrogen
evaporates out of the cell at roughly 1.7 percent a day.
This means that eventually cars are going to need a fill
up. What? You thought you never had to use a pump
again? The other problem with this is gas stations don't
sell hydrogen. You will have to find a customized
fueling station or work something out with the
manufacturer of the car. Cars that are blends with fuel
cells and gasoline will never have to worry about being
stranded.

III. CONSTRUCTION
The solar tracker mainly comprises of the following
components:

5 LDRs (Light Dependent Resistors)

2 miniature Servo Motors
Atmega 328 Microcontroller (Soldered on
PCB for convenience)
Interface to mount Solar panel
Solar panel

LDR - A photoresistor or light dependent resistor

(LDR) is a resistor whose resistance decreases with
increasing incident light intensity; in other words, it
exhibits photoconductivity. Photoelectric or light
sensing device are used in almost any branch of
industry for control, safety, amusement and sound
reproduction and inspection and measurement
Servomotor - A servomotor is a rotary actuator that
allows for precise control of angular position
Solar panel - A solar panel (also solar module,
photovoltaic module or photovoltaic panel) is a
packaged, connected assembly of photovoltaic cells
A hydrogen fuel cell consists of the following parts:

Anode
Cathode
Proton exchange membrane

Ways in which we can improve the hfc :

Usage of carbon silk instead of platinum exchange
membrane.
Instead of having the cell in car, we can use electric
engines and produce electricity in bunks and refill the
electricity on a storage battery in the car.
Fig 1: Hydrogen fuel cell

434

2013 International Conference on Green Computing, Communication and Conservation of Energy (ICGCE)

Anode - the negative post of the fuel cell has several

jobs. It conducts the electrons that are freed from the
hydrogen molecules so that they can be used in an
external circuit. It has channels etched into it that
disperse the hydrogen gas equally over the surface of
the catalyst.

2. Since the bulb is placed in closer proximity to the

secondary panel the amount of heat received by the
panel increases and also the intensity of power
delivered will be of a greater magnitude.

Cathode - the positive post of the fuel cell has channels

etched into it that distribute the oxygen to the surface of
the catalyst. It also conducts the electrons back from the
external circuit to the catalyst, where they can
recombine with the hydrogen ions and oxygen to form
water.

The constantly functioning adruino based solar

tracker fed solar panels works basically using
electronic components like LDR(Light Detecting
Resistors)and servo motors . Initially the maximum
intensity sun-light is regularly tracked using LDRs
which are placed in four corners and in the centre of a
plane surface. The LDR placed at the point where
photo energy is maximum gets activated and provides
input to the adruino circuit. Now if the sun light is
maximum in the north eastern direction, the LDR
placed in the centre and frontal east corner gets
activated. Since we have two servo motors , one servo
motor is used to attain top to bottom (180 deg.)
movement and other is used for rotary motion (360 deg.
) . From the input obtained through LDRs, the Atmega
microcontroller directs the miniature servo motors to
rotate accordingly .Now this tracker arrangement feeds
the primary panel mounted over the tracking assembly.
The energy obtained from the primary panel is then fed
to a bulb of lesser rating which is positioned in the
middle of a hemispherical secondary solar panel in
order to incident the obtained energy entirely on the
secondary solar panel in the form of light. This helps in
achieving maximum efficiency of secondary solar
panel.

Proton exchange membrane - This specially treated

material, which looks something like ordinary kitchen
plastic wrap, only conducts positively charged ions. The
membrane blocks electrons. For a PEMFC, the
membrane must be hydrated in order to function and
remain stable.
Unlike the conventional batteries, HFCs use proton
exchange membrane for ion exchange instead of the
electrolytes used in batteries. Electrolytes get unusable
when the ions loose out due to constant charging and
discharging. But these proton exchange membrane is
only a catalyst for ion separation and does not take part
in the actual reaction.
IV. SOLAR TRACKER
A. Movement of solar panel
1. Solar power is the main input that is derived from the
sun by using a solar tracker. The light dependent
resistors placed in all directions help to pin point the
exact location of the sun at any particular instance of
time and thus by rotating the solar panel in the direction
of incidence, the solar light can be made to fall on the
solar panel with accuracy.

C. Actual working procedure

This way we get to extract the solar energy to the

fullest for power production (Efficiency almost equals
100%)

2. Solar cells or photovoltaic cells are used to convert

sunlight directly into electricity by converting photons
(light particles) into electrons (negatively charged
particles). Photovoltaic cells are made of
semiconductors and silicon, mixed with other material.
In Short, when the sun hits a PV cell it causes the atoms
to release their electrons in a way that produces a direct
current (DC) similar to the energy from batteries
B. Connection of a secondary panel
1. A secondary panel of smaller size is utilized mainly
to increase the efficiency by directing the power
generated by the first solar panel to a separate bulb
positioned directly over the secondary panel.

D. Splitting of the power to support various devices

2013 International Conference on Green Computing, Communication and Conservation of Energy (ICGCE)

435

The power obtained from the secondary panel is then

split and a major portion of the power prroduced is used
to supply domestic or household needs and
a a small
portion is used to supply a hydrogen fuell cell
V. INPUT FUEL HYDROG
GEN
Hydrogen is the input for this fuel cell which
w
involves
the following steps.
A. Production of hydrogen:
Thermal processes use the ennergy in various
resources, such as natural gas, coal, or
biomass, to release hydrogen, which
w
is part of
their molecular structure. In other
o
processes,
heat, in combination with closed-chemical
c
cycles, produces hydrogen froom feed stocks
such as waterthese are knoown as "thermo
chemical" processes.

Electrolytic processes use eleectricity to split

water into hydrogen and oxygenn, a process that
takes place in an electrolyyzer. Hydrogen
produced via electrolysis cann result in zero
greenhouse gas emissions, depending on the
u
The two
source of the electricity used.
electrolysis pathways of greattest interest for
wide-scale hydrogen productioon, which result
in near-zero greenhouse gas emissions, are
electrolysis using renewablle sources of
electricity and nuclear high-temperature
h
electrolysis.

Issues with compressed hydrrogen gas tanks revolve

around high pressure, weightt, volume, conformability
and cost. The cost of high-prressure compressed gas
tanks is essentially dictated by
b the cost of the carbon
fiber that must be used for ligght-weight structural
reinforcement. Efforts are unnderway to identify lowercost carbon fiber that can meeet the required highpressure and safety specificattions for hydrogen gas
tanks. However, lower-cost carbon
c
fibers must still be
capable of meeting tank thickkness constraints in order to
meet volumetric capacity targgets. Thus, lowering cost
without compromising weighht and volume is a key
challenge.
S INVOLVED
VI. PROCESS
A. Step 1 :
Water H20 is split into H2 and O2 by the process of
electrolysis.
H20 H2 + O2

Photolytic processes use light energy to split

water into hydrogen and oxygeen. Currently in
the very early stages of research,
r
these
processes offer long-term potential for
sustainable hydrogen producction with low
environmental impact.

B. Transportation of hydrogen:
A hydrogen economy requires an infrastructure to
deliver hydrogen from where it's produced to the point
of end-use, such as a dispenser at a refueeling station or
stationary power site. Infrastructure incluudes the
pipelines, trucks, storage facilities, comppressors, and
dispensers involved in the process of dellivering fuel.
The pipelines should be leak protected as the element
hydrogen is highly reactive with the outsside
environment.
C. Storage of hydrogen:
T
Compressed Hydrogen Gas Tanks:
The energy density of gaseous hydrogenn can be
improved by storing hydrogen at higher pressures. This
higher pressure requires material and dessign

436

improvements in order to enssure tank integrity.

Advances in compression tecchnologies are also required
to improve efficiencies and reduce
r
the cost of producing
high-pressure hydrogen.

H
Fig 2: Hydrolysis
B. Step 2:
Splitting of H2 into H+ and an electron by a
proton exchange membrane:
2H2 4H+ + 4eThe electrons produced pass through the external circuit
to produce electricity. This iss done through proton
exchange membrane (V) whiich is capable of sucking

2013 International Conference on Green Computing, Communication and Conservation of Energy (ICGCE)

only hydrogen ions or protons and leaving out the

electrons.

C. Step 3:
At the outlet, H+ reacts with atmospheric
oxygen O2 to get water H2O as exhaust.
2H2 + O2 2H2O
Thus the process is recyclable and the output can be
used again in step one or used for any other purposes as
it is harmless to the environment.
VII. PROTON EXCHANGE MEMBRANE
Proton exchange membrane (PEM) works with a
polymer electrolyte in the form of a thin, permeable
sheet. This membrane is small and light, and it works at
low temperatures (about 80 degrees C, or about 175
degrees F). Other electrolytes require temperatures as
high as 1,000C.
To speed the reaction a platinum catalyst is used on
both sides of the membrane. Hydrogen atoms are
stripped of their electrons, or "ionized," at the anode,
and the positively charged protons diffuse through one
side of the porous membrane and migrate toward the
cathode. The electrons pass from the anode to the
cathode through an exterior circuit and provide electric
power along the way. At the cathode, the electrons,
hydrogen protons and oxygen from the air combine to
form water. For this fuel cell to work, the proton
exchange membrane electrolyte must allow hydrogen
protons to pass through but prohibit the passage of
electrons and heavier gases.
PEM technology served as part of NASA's Project
Gemini in the early days of the U.S. piloted space
program. Batteries had provided spacecraft power in
earlier Project Mercury missions, but the lunar flights
envisioned for Project Apollo required a longer duration
power source. Gemini's main objective was to test
equipment and procedures for Apollo, and missions
lasting up to 14 days included operational tests of fuel
cells. GE's PEM cells were selected, but the model PB2
cell encountered repeated technical difficulties,
including internal cell contamination and leakage of
oxygen through the membrane. Geminis 1 through 4
flew with batteries instead.

Fig 3: Proton exchange membrane

GE redesigned their PEM cell, and the new model P3,
despite malfunctions and poor performance on Gemini
5, served adequately for the remaining Gemini flights.
Project Apollo mission planners; however, chose to use
alkali fuel cells for both the command and lunar
modules, as did designers of the Space Shuttle a decade
later.
GE continued working on PEM cells and in the mid1970s developed PEM water electrolysis technology for
undersea life support, leading to the US Navy Oxygen
Generating Plant. The British Royal Navy adopted this
technology in early 1980s for their submarine fleet.
Other groups also began looking at PEM cells. In the
late 1980s and early 1990s, Los Alamos National Lab
and Texas A&M University experimented with ways to
reduce the amount of platinum required for PEM cells.
VIII. FUTURE APPLICATION-SOLAR HFC
POWERED CAR
By integrating the concepts of HFC and solar power, a
hybrid car which runs both on fossil fuels and green
energy can be a promising application. Fossil fuels are
only used a substitute while the car largely runs on the
hydrogen fuel launched by solar energy.
The solar charger can be employed in power stations
(instead of petrol bunks) to recharge the storage system
as and when necessary. Before the car begins,
depending on the distance to be traversed an
approximate amount of hydrogen fuel is stored in the
HFC. It also stores about 10% more fuel as a
precaution. Since, the whole process of hydrogen fuel
generation is recyclable; there is a minimal chance of
running out of fuel when the car is running. To initiate
the hydrolysis of water, the power obtained from solar
energy is used instead of conventional batteries. This

2013 International Conference on Green Computing, Communication and Conservation of Energy (ICGCE)

437

also reduces the battery cost involved in the HFCs

u the system.
leaving the initial investment of setting up
All the factors combined results in an eco-friendly
mode of transport without any comprom
mise on the
existing comforts of a car.
IX. EFFICIENCY
The energy efficiency of a system or devvice that
converts energy is measured by the ratio of the amount
of useful energy put out by the system (""output energy")
to the total amount of energy that is put in
i ("input
energy") or by useful output energy as a percentage of
the total input energy. In the case of fuell cells, useful
output energy is measured in electrical energy
e
produced
by the system. Input energy is the energyy stored in the
fuel. According to the U.S. Department of
o Energy, fuel
cells are generally between 4060% enerrgy efficient.
This is higher than some other systems for
f energy
generation. For example, the typical inteernal
combustion engine of a car is about 25%
% energy
efficient. In combined heat and power (C
CHP) systems,
the heat produced by the fuel cell is capttured and put to
use, increasing the efficiency of the systeem to up to 85
90%.

internal combustion engines. While these efficiencies

are not approached in most reeal world applications, high
temperature fuel cells (solid oxide
o
fuel cells or molten
carbonate fuel cells) can theooretically be combined with
gas turbines to allow stationaary fuel cells to come closer
to the theoretical limit. A gass turbine would capture
heat from the fuel cell and tuurn it into mechanical
energy to increase the fuel ceells operational efficiency.
This solution has been prediccted to increase total
efficiency to as much as 70%
%.
X. FUTURE CHALLENGES
C
The cost factor of the servo motors
m
and constant
maintenance of the solar pannels are quite difficult when
implementations are done in large scale. Though the
p
the hydrogen fuel
solar tracker poses minimal problems,
cell has higher complicationss. Cost and durability are
the major challenges to fuel cell
c commercialization.
However, hurdles vary accorrding to the application in
which the technology is employed. Size, weight, and
thermal and water managemeent are barriers to the
commercialization of fuel cell technology. In
transportation applications, thhese technologies face
more stringent cost and durabbility hurdles. In stationary
power applications, where coogeneration of heat and
power is desired, use of PEM
M fuel cells would benefit
from raising operating tempeeratures to increase
performance.

Fig 6: Efficiency comparison

The theoretical maximum efficiency of any
a type of
power generation system is rarely reacheed in practice,
and it does not consider other steps in poower generation,
such as production, transportation and sttorage of fuel
and conversion of the electricity into meechanical power.
However, this calculation allows the com
mparison of
different types of power generation. Thee maximum
theoretical energy efficiency of a fuel ceell is 83%,
operating at low power density and usingg pure hydrogen
and oxygen as reactants (assuming no heeat recapture)
According to the World Energy Council, this compares
with a maximum theoretical efficiency of
o 58% for

438

DVANTAGES
XI. MAJOR AD
Energy is produceed without burning fossil
fuels.
Power is generateed without emitting toxic
pollutants.
At 60% efficiency of
o input fuel H2.
Three times moore efficient than any
combustion enginess.
The same cell can be
b used without replacement
for life time.
p
can also be split into
Secondary panels power
other promising poower production resources
like Hydrogen fuel cell
c for hydrolysis
REFEREN
NCES

[1] Haijiang Wang, PEM fuell cell diagonistic tools vol. 1

[2] S. Basu, Recent trends in fuel science and technology
[3] Mehrdad Ehsani, Modernn Electric, Hybrid Electric, and
Fuel Cell Vehicles
[4] Wireless Power Transfer-- Principles and Engineering
Explorations by Ki Young Kim
[5] http://www1.eere.energy.goov/hydrogenandfuelcells/fuelc
ells/index.html
[6] http://www.worldenergy.orrg/focus/fuel_cells/377.asp
[7] http://www.physicsforums..com/showthread.php?t=12220
1
[8] http://www.tfcbooks.com/aarticles/tws8c.html

2013 International Conference on Green Computing, Communication and Conservation of Energy (ICGCE)