Turbocharged SOFC System: Emulation and Control in Cyber-Physical Mode

The objective of this work regards an SOFC system pressurized by a turbocharger and the related emulation tests for control system development. Due to the interest in coupling high efficiency operations with reasonable capital costs a turbocharged SOFC plant layout has been proposed. This is due to significant cost decrease (in comparison with microturbine-based SOFC hybrids) related to the application of a turbocharger based on large mass manufacturing process. Moreover, the system has been sized to work with biogas to operate with a renewable source. Due to the difficulties in studying the SOFC/turbocharger integration, especially for the dynamic and control aspects, the University of Genoa developed a devoted test rig where the fuel cell is emulated with a pressure vessel equipped with a burner (to have the same temperature range) and inert ceramic material (to have the same time-dependent response). The emulation tests presented in this work have been carried out to demonstrate the system feasibility in dynamic conditions and to assess the control system performance.