Control Oriented Analysis of a Hybrid Solid Oxide Fuel Cell and Gas Turbine System

Abstract

The goal of this work is to investigate the feasibility of a hybrid solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and gas turbine (GT) system for mobile power production. A system consisting of a gas turbine, a burner, and an SOFC is examined to gain fundamental understanding of the system dynamics. A control oriented dynamic model is developed to provide the critically needed tool for system feasibility analysis and control strategy design. System optimization and transient analysis are performed based on the system model to determine the desired operating conditions and load following limitations. It is shown that the open loop system will shut down in the case of a large load step. Based on the insights learned from the open loop analysis, a feedback control scheme is proposed. The feedback scheme is based on a reference governor, which modifies the load applied to the generator to guarantee stability and fast tracking during transients.