A Transient Model of a Hybrid Fuel Cell/Gas Turbine Test Facility Using Simulink

Abstract

The National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL, U.S., D.O.E.) in Morgantown, West Virginia has successfully designed and is operating a fuel cell/turbine hybrid test facility. With the successful operation of this test facility, it is now possible to model, test and evaluate the effect of pressure and temperature transients important to the design and operation of a fuel cell/gas turbine hybrid system and provide a means of quantifying mitigation methods to address adverse impacts of such transients to the operation, safety and efficiency of these systems. This paper deals exclusively with the Simulink, lumped parameter model and its relationship to controls development. Presented in detail are the development, structure and methodology of this Simulink process model as related to the Hybrid Performance (Hyper) test facility in use at NETL. Thus far the model simulates only the test facility, which presently does not have a fuel cell, but a large plenum is used to represent the cathode air volume. Future work will insert fuel cell models developed by NETL. Components of the model are presented and described in detail. Two case studies are presented based on the effect of load shed transients on system performance. These case studies are 1.) Speed controlled load shedding, 2.) Speed set point changing.