Adaptive Control of a Nonlinear Fuel Cell Gas Turbine Balance of Plant Simulation Facility

Abstract

A 300 kW solid oxide fuel cell gas turbine (SOFCGT) power plant simulator is evaluated with the use of a model reference adaptive control (MRAC) scheme, implemented for a set of nonlinear empirical transfer functions. The SOFCGT simulator allows testing of various fuel cell models under a hardwareintheloop configuration that incorporates a 120 kW auxiliary power unit and balanceofplant components in hardware, and a fuel cell model in software. The adaptation technique is beneficial to plants having a wide range of operation, and strong coupling interaction. The practical implementation of the adaptive methodology is presented through simulation in the Matlab/Simulink environment.