Cell Gas Turbine Hybrid Power Research Articles

A Novel Multiagent Resource Sharing Algorithm for Control of Advanced Energy Systems

This paper implements a novel resource sharing control strategy on a fuel cell–gas turbine hybrid power system at the National Energy Technology Laboratory’s Hybrid Performance Facility (Hyper). In a fuel cell–gas turbine hybrid power system, the simultaneous interaction of the gas turbine and the fuel cell creates a tightly coupled environment characterized by conflicting dynamics. In this paper, a model-free control approach is applied to solve the tightly coupled control problem posed by this challenging environment. Specifically, this control problem is presented as a resource sharing problem that can be solved using a resource sharing algorithm that is defined based on the distribution construction concept. This algorithm creates computational agents and solves the problem through the distribution and redistribution of shared resources defined as blocks. Two agents were created; the first agent (agent 1) controls the gas turbine speed by adjusting the electric load, and the second agent (agent 2) controls the cathode mass flow through the fuel cell using the cold-air bypass valve. A parametric study was performed over the course of 15 experimental tests for both agents 1 and 2 through an evaluation of the responses based on setpoint changes. The algorithm was shown to have behavior comparable to a previously implemented multi-input multioutput state-space controller, which was designed through a model-based control approach. The resource sharing algorithm was able to find stable performance during run-time operations without any prior system knowledge identification on the power plant and without creating models used in traditional control strategies.

Study on the performance comparison of three configurations of aviation fuel cell gas turbine hybrid power generation system

Developing aviation power generation methods with high efficiency is one of the important issues that need to be solved in aviation field, especially for More/All Electric aircraft. In this paper, the advanced solid oxide fuel cell gas turbine hybrid power generation system based on aviation kerosene is studied. And the performance of three configurations of hybrid system without/with SOFC exhaust recirculation are compared and evaluated, which are a basic hybrid system without exhaust recirculation (BHS), an anode exhaust recirculation hybrid system (ARHS), and an anode and cathode exhaust recirculation hybrid system (ACRHS). The results show that the power generation efficiency of the BHS is 59.3%, while the two hybrid systems with exhaust recirculation increase to around 70%: the efficiency of ARHS is 70.9%, and ACRHS is 69.7%. But the ACRHS shows greater potential in increasing the SOFC cathode inlet temperature. And the specific work of the hybrid system with exhaust recirculation can reach more than 760 kW (kg air)−1. In addition, the parameters such as pressure ratio, temperature ratio and fuel utilization have important influence on the performance. Due to the advantages of high power generation efficiency and specific work, hybrid system is a competitive power generation system in aviation field.

Transfer function development for control of cathode airflow transients in fuel cell gas turbine hybrid systems

Direct-fired fuel cell gas turbine hybrid power system responses to open-loop transients were evaluated using a hardware-based simulation of an integrated solid oxide fuel cell gas turbine (SOFC/GT) hybrid system, implemented through the Hybrid Performance (Hyper) facility at the U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). A disturbance in the cathode inlet air mass flow was performed by manipulating a hot-air bypass valve implemented in the hardware component. Two tests were performed; the fuel cell stack subsystem numerical simulation model was both decoupled and fully coupled with the gas turbine hardware component. The dynamic responses of the entire SOFC/GT hybrid system were studied in this paper. The reduction of cathode airflow resulted in a sharp decrease and partial recovery of the fuel cell thermal effluent in 10 s. In contrast, the turbine rotational speed did not exhibit a similar trend. The transfer functions of several important variables in the fuel cell stack subsystem and gas turbine subsystem were developed to be used in the future control method development. The importance of the cathode airflow regulation was quantified through transfer functions. The management of cathode airflow was also suggested to be a potential strategy to increase the life of fuel cells by reducing the thermal impact of operational transients on the fuel cell subsystem.

Analysis of a pressurized solid oxide fuel cell–gas turbine hybrid power system with cathode gas recirculation

A pressurized solid oxide fuel cell–gas turbine hybrid system (SOFC–GT system) has been received much attention for a distributed power generation due to its high efficiency. When considering an energy management of the system, it is found that a heat input is highly required to preheat air before being fed to the SOFC stack. The recirculation of a high-temperature cathode exhaust gas is probably an interesting option to reduce the requirement of an external heat for the SOFC–GT system. This study aims to analyze the pressurized SOFC–GT hybrid system fed by ethanol with the recycle of a cathode exhaust gas via a simulation study. Effect of important operating parameters on the electrical efficiency and heat management of the system is investigated. The results indicate that an increase in the operating pressure dramatically improves the system electrical efficiency. The suitable pressure is in a range of 4–6 bar, achieving the highest system electrical efficiency and the lowest recuperation energy from the waste heat of the GT exhaust gas. In addition, it is found that the waste heat obtained from the GT is higher than the heat required for the system, leading to a possibility of the SOFC–GT system to be operated at a self-sustainable condition. Under a high pressure operation, the SOFC–GT system requires a high recirculation of the cathode exhaust gas to maintain the system without supplying the external heat; however, the increased recirculation ratio of the cathode exhaust gas reduces the system electrical efficiency.

Linear Quadratic Regulator for a Bottoming Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Gas Turbine Hybrid System

The control system for fuel cell gas turbine hybrid power plants plays an important role in achieving synergistic operation of subsystems, improving reliability of operation, and reducing frequency of maintenance and downtime. In this paper, we discuss development of advanced control algorithms for a system composed of an internally reforming solid oxide fuel cell coupled with an indirectly heated Brayton cycle gas turbine. In high temperature fuel cells it is critical to closely maintain fuel cell temperatures and to provide sufficient electrochemical reacting species to ensure system durability. The control objective explored here is focused on maintaining the system power output, temperature constraints, and target fuel utilization, in the presence of ambient temperature and fuel composition perturbations. The present work details the development of a centralized linear quadratic regulator (LQR) including state estimation via Kalman filtering. The controller is augmented by local turbine speed control and integral system power control. Relative gain array analysis has indicated that independent control loops of the hybrid system are coupled at time scales greater than 1 s. The objective of the paper is to quantify the performance of a centralized LQR in rejecting fuel and ambient temperature disturbances compared with a previously developed decentralized controller. Results indicate that both the LQR and decentralized controller can well maintain the system power to the disturbances. However, the LQR ensures better maintenance of the fuel cell stack voltage and temperature that can improve high temperature fuel cell system durability.

Modelling for part-load operation of solid oxide fuel cell–gas turbine hybrid power plant

This paper presents the work on part-load operation of a power generation system composed of a solid oxide fuel cell and a gas turbine (SOFC–GT) which operate on natural gas. The system consists of an internal reforming SOFC (IRSOFC) stack, an external combustor, two turbines, two compressors, two recuperators and one heat-recovery steam generator (HRSG). Based on experience in different levels of modelling of the fuel cell, fuel cell stack and integrated system and the inherent characteristics of a IRSOFC–GT hybrid power plant, a practical approach for simplifying part-load operation of the system is proposed. Simulation results show that an IRSOFC–GT hybrid system could achieve a net electrical efficiency and system efficiency (including waste heat recovery for steam generation) of greater than 60 and 80%, respectively, under full-load operation. Due to the complexity of the interaction of the components and safety requirements, the part-load performance of a IRSOFC–GT hybrid power plant is poorer than that under full-load operation.