KR20120118651A - Controller for sofc system drive - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An operation control device of solid oxide fuel cell system is provided to accurately test performance of a fuel cell system, and to monitor a BOP system. CONSTITUTION: An operation control device comprises: a controller(10) controlling BOP of fuel cell system according to pre-determined program; signal generator in virtual operation state(30) copying a real system dynamic characteristic that a controller is supposed to be applied; a display part(20) for debugging and monitoring an operation control factor value and for putting a set factor/variable; a communication module for transferring operational control command signals from the controller to the BOP; and an input/output interface part(50) for transferring a control signal to the BOP. [Reference numerals] (10) Controller; (20) Display part; (30) Signal generator of virtual operation state; (40) Communication module; (50) Input/output I/F; (AA) Control commander; (BB) Control signal input/output

Description

Operation control device of solid oxide fuel cell system {CONTROLLER FOR SOFC SYSTEM DRIVE}

The present invention relates to an operation control apparatus for a solid oxide fuel cell system, and more particularly, to accurately test a fuel cell system, and to manage and monitor a grid-connected BOP system for a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). Control system H / W platform technology.

With the recent economic growth, the demand for electricity in developing and middle countries is expected to surge, and OECD countries need to replace their facilities due to the aging of the existing grid or large-scale investment in transmission and distribution facilities during the construction of central power generation. In terms of efficiency, medium and small capacity flat-pipe solid oxide fuel cells are expected to be used as the main power source for homes and small-scale power generation facilities, which can save energy by reducing transmission and distribution facilities and high efficiency power generation.

In addition, as the future power system becomes a smart grid that enables the use of electric power for consumers, that is, households through bi-directional information exchange between the electric power supplier and the consumer, the importance of the development system of this project is the fuel cell system for saving electricity. Control signal processing.

The fuel cell has a mechanism for directly converting chemical energy generated by oxidation of fuel into electrical energy. It is regarded as an eco-friendly technology because there is almost no emission of pollutants, and because it can use various fuels in addition to petroleum, it is a theme that is attracting attention as a problem of resource depletion and next-generation green energy.

 Fuel cells are classified into polymer electrolyte (PEMFC), direct methanol (DMFC), alkali (AFC), molten carbonate (MCFC), and solid oxide (SOFC) types based on the type of electrolyte used in the cell. In particular, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) have been researched in advanced countries for home use and automobile use, but the technology is still low compared to other fuel cells in Korea, and localization of related parts is urgently needed. to be.

 Since SOFC operates at high temperature of 500 ~ 1000 ℃ and converts chemical energy directly into electrical energy, it has theoretically the highest energy efficiency.It is more efficient than other fuel cells, and the material produced by electrochemical reaction is water pollution. Low noise and no moving parts inside the system. Unlike the polymer electrolyte fuel cell, the reaction can be accelerated without the use of expensive platinum catalysts, and there are a lot of materials that can be used as fuels, and the electrochemical reactions occurring inside the fuel cell system are exothermic reactions. Combined power generation is possible.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a fuel cell system operation control system.

As shown in FIG. 1, the configuration of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) systems is a system in which various systems such as materials, chemicals, machinery, electricity, electronics, and control are integrated. It is composed of ceramic cell which is a basic unit, stack which is a combination of cells, mechanical balance of plant (M-BOP) and electronic balance of plant (E-BOP) which enables the stack to run. It is.

The fuel processor is called a fuel converter and is a part that produces hydrogen used in a fuel cell. The stack is a part that directly converts chemical energy of a hydrogen material into electric energy to generate a direct current. At this time, the reaction occurs directly in the MEA (Membrane Electrode Assembly) and E-BOP (Balance Of Plant) is the part of the electrical control system to supply the fuel required for the fuel cell and to operate the system smoothly. It mainly serves to provide an environment that allows the stack to operate normally, such as supplying fuel and air to the stack and maintaining a water circulation system. Control is required.

To date, the development of fuel cells has been the main issue of stack development, and the area of the BOP controller is simply composed or developed to assist the stack to at least operate. As a result, it is a question of whether the stack system outputs power by properly controlling the external power change request.

In the initial development of the BOP controller, a test bed H / W for verifying the signal processing model is required for the actual development because there is no object for developing a control processing algorithm.

Therefore, there is an urgent need to develop an operation control system H / W platform that finally manages and monitors a grid-connected E-BOP system for a flat tube solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC).

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, an object of the present invention is to develop a control algorithm between the BOP in the fuel cell and the H / W control platform for processing the final management and control information of the fuel cell output .

More specifically, all control signals generated in the E-BOP are inputted and outputted, and the control signals for the events are sent to the driver or the M-BOP (Mechanical Balance Of Plant) or the E-BOP (Electronic Balance Of Plant) system. The goal is to lay the groundwork for controlling the operating state corresponding to the mode and to prepare the H / W platform to efficiently design the control of the E-BOP system.

It is still another object of the present invention to provide a signal interface platform for inputting / outputting a signal for control, monitoring a driving state, and controlling an event occurring. The company intends to develop the H / W platform to easily export stack control signals and target the fuel cell control and measurement system market.

The final object of the present invention is to develop a main controller H / W in charge of the control signal to improve the high efficiency output of the fuel cell, Fuel Processor and Air System (fuel supply and air management), Water Management (water management), In order to control thermal management, H / W platform is developed to input / output signals for events during operation and to process control signals in real time.

According to an aspect of the present invention for achieving the above object, a controller for controlling the BOP of a solid oxide fuel cell system according to a preset program, a virtual operation state signal generator to simulate the actual system dynamic characteristics to be applied to the controller, debugging And a display unit for monitoring an operation control factor value and inputting a setting factor / variable, a communication module for transmitting an operation control command signal of the controller to the BOP, and an input / output interface unit for transmitting a control signal to the BOP. An operation control apparatus for a solid oxide fuel cell system is provided.

Here, the virtual driving state signal generator collects the actual BOP operation data and stores it in the form of a log file, and during operation of the simulation operation data simulation unit for reproducing the log file, generating and selectively loading arbitrary virtual BOP data and the A data transmission and monitoring unit for converting the actual BOP operation data received from the operation data simulation unit into a monitorable form, and the BOP operation received from the operation data simulation unit and the BOP operation data transmission and monitoring unit based on a previously stored BOP specification database. Downloading and debugging an evaluation module unit for evaluating data and performing debugging processing when an error occurs in the evaluation result, a connection unit providing multiple connections for connecting the respective components in a bus form, and the evaluation module unit. For everything It is preferable to include a loading tool.

The virtual operation state signal generator models a fuel cell system using a winner mode system identification algorithm, and the parameter values in the winner mode algorithm are as follows.

The controller preferably has a normal operation mode for controlling the operation of the BOP of the fuel cell system and a check mode for applying a test signal to the BOP and analyzing the response signal accordingly to determine whether the operation is normal.

According to the present invention, it monitors all events occurring in BOP based on the developed H / W platform, manages the whole process of the system when the control on the E-BOP is necessary, and controls the operation signal for the driver or the BOP. It can send / output to the system system the signal corresponding to the operation status, so that it can finally manage and monitor the grid-connected E-BOP system for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC).

In addition, there is an effect that a test bed H / W for verifying the signal processing model for development in the initial development of the BOP controller is provided.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a fuel cell system operation control system.
2 is a block diagram of a BOP operation control system according to the present invention.
3 illustrates a detailed structure of the virtual driving state signal generator of FIG. 2.
4 is a graph showing the simulation hit ratio in the case of the system modeling by the Winnie model of the present invention.
5 is a graph showing the simulation hit ratio in the case of the system modeling by the conventional linear model.
6 is a flowchart illustrating a process in which battery energy calculation is performed as a system performance evaluation element.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The system control signal element design and communication channel and I / O design elements are as follows in Table 1. As shown in Table 1, the control means for each control object and the control signal for each control conversation are Is done.

2 is a block diagram of a BOP operation control system according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 2, the BOP operation control system according to the present invention includes a controller 10, a display unit 20, a virtual operation state signal generator 30, a communication module 40, and an input / output interface unit 50. It is configured to include.

The controller 10 controls the BOP of the solid oxide fuel cell system according to a preset program. The controller 10 applies a test signal to the normal operation mode for controlling the operation of the BOP of the fuel cell system and the BOP, and sends a response signal accordingly. It has a check mode that analyzes and judges normal operation.

The controller 10 may perform stack cell voltage monitoring and temperature control monitoring.

The controller 10 controls cell voltage monitoring to determine whether there is an abnormality of a stack, and may be implemented by a CVM (Cell Voltage Monitoring) method that is currently used and used in a fuel cell system. To monitor all cells, analog input channels are needed as many as the cells in the stack. To reduce the number of channels, a multiplexer can be used to implement the circuit.

   In addition, the controller 10 controls to measure the temperature using a thermocouple, and reads the measurement value according to the situation to generate the monitoring and control signals.

The display unit 20 is for monitoring debugging and operation control parameter values and inputting setting parameters / variables. The display unit 20 may be used for a debugging operation. In order to check the operation control state according to the failure and the situation of the system in the initial test bed stage, the display unit 20 is used to verify and monitor the signal at the development stage and to monitor the user. By designating the input / output value transfer interface according to the definition, it can be designed to display the operating conditions.

The virtual driving state signal generator 30 simulates actual system dynamic characteristics to which the controller is to be applied, and a detailed structure thereof will be described with reference to FIG. 3.

The communication module 40 is for transmitting the operation control command signal of the controller 10 to the BOP. The communication module 40 implements a transmission signal to the final operation unit of the fuel cell system and performs RS of the operation state and data monitoring of the system. It is implemented by serial communication such as -232/485/422.

The input / output interface unit 50 transmits a control signal to the BOP, and includes an analog input unit, an analog output unit, and a digital input / output unit.

The analog input unit may be designed to acquire data of various sensors (pressure sensor, flow sensor, current sensor, etc.), and it is preferable to consider increasing the number of channels and expanding the input range by considering the addition of an external ADC.

The analog output unit can be designed as a means for various fuel cell systems to control and monitor the BOP.

The digital input / output unit is mainly for controlling valves and switches, and performs the function of transmitting the on / off signal of the signal by using a contact method, and it is important to design a high reliability switch by reducing the noise generated during operation. .

3 illustrates a detailed structure of the virtual driving state signal generator of FIG. 2.

As shown in FIG. 3, the virtual driving state signal generator 30 includes a driving data simulation unit 31, a data transmission and monitoring unit 32, an evaluation module unit 33, a connection unit 34, and a download tool in detail. It comprises 35.

The driving data simulation unit 31 collects actual BOP driving data and stores the log data in the form of a log file, and reproduces the log file during a simulation operation.

 The data transmission and monitoring unit 32 generates and selectively loads arbitrary virtual BOP data and converts the actual BOP operation data received from the operation data simulation unit 31 into a monitorable form.

The evaluation module unit 33 evaluates the BOP operation data received from the operation data simulation unit 31 and the data transmission and monitoring unit 32 based on the pre-stored BOP specification database, and when the evaluation result error occurs, debugging processing. To do.

The connection part 34 provides multiple connections for connecting the respective components in the form of a bus, and the download tool 35 is for downloading and debugging the program code to the evaluation module part 33.

4 is a graph showing the simulation hit rate when the system modeling by the Winnie model of the present invention, Figure 5 is a graph showing the simulation hit rate when the system modeling by the conventional linear model.

The virtual operation state signal generator models a fuel cell system using a Wiener mode system identification algorithm, and the parameter values in the Wiener mode algorithm are as follows.

As a result of the simulation, the hit ratio of the Wiener model of the present invention was improved from 84.03% to 98.38% compared to the linear model, indicating that the simulation hit ratio was very high.

6 is a flowchart illustrating a process in which battery energy calculation is performed as a system performance evaluation element.

In order to evaluate the performance of a fuel cell, it is important to verify the operation conditions of the fuel cell and then standardize the operating conditions. The calculated items for each part of the fuel cell performance evaluation include cell energy calculation, fuel amount calculation, reformer heat balance calculation and heat energy calculation.

6 shows a process of calculating battery energy. Referring to FIG. 6, first, an electrical load demand pattern is input (S600), and an input power of an AC / DC inverter in consideration of efficiency is calculated (S610). Here, the average value of the electrical load demand pattern is calculated through repeated verification.

Next, the output ratio of the fuel cell according to the state of the storage battery and the hot water tank is determined (S620), and the output of the DC / DC converter is calculated (S630).

   Next, the output of the storage battery is calculated (S640), and finally the output of the fuel cell is calculated based on the output (S640).

In addition, the fuel amount may be calculated by calculating theoretical hydrogen amount according to the output of the fuel cell, calculating hydrogen amount and air amount according to utilization rate, and calculating gas supply amount supplied to the reformer.

In addition, the heat balance of the reformer may be calculated through a process of heat exchanger heat exchange amount calculation, evaporator required heat and supply calorie calculation, calorie calculation required in the combustor and fuel amount and air amount to be supplied to the combustor.

The thermal energy may be calculated by inputting a heat load demand pattern, calculating a calorie generated in a fuel cell, calculating calories recovered from each heat exchanger, and calculating and reading a temperature of a hot water tank according to the recovered calories and supplied heat load. .

Although the present invention has been described in connection with the above-mentioned preferred embodiments, it is possible to make various modifications and variations without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the appended claims will cover such modifications and variations as fall within the spirit of the invention.

10: controller 20: display unit
30: virtual operation state signal generator 31: operation data simulation unit
32: data transmission and monitoring unit 33: evaluation module unit
34: connection 35: download tool
40: communication module 50: input / output I / F
60: BOP

Claims (4)

In the operation control apparatus of a solid oxide fuel cell system,
A controller for controlling the BOP of the solid oxide fuel cell system according to a preset program;
A virtual driving state signal generator which simulates actual system dynamic characteristics to which the controller is to be applied;
A display unit for monitoring debugging and operation control factor values and inputting setting parameters / variables;
A communication module for transmitting an operation control command signal of the controller to the BOP; And
And an input / output interface unit for transmitting a control signal to the BOP.
The method of claim 1,
The virtual driving state signal generator
A driving data simulation unit for collecting actual BOP driving data and storing the log data in a log file form and reproducing the log file during a simulation operation;
A data transmission and monitoring unit for generating and selectively loading arbitrary virtual BOP data and converting actual BOP operation data received from the operation data simulation unit into a monitorable form;
An evaluation module unit for evaluating BOP operation data received from the operation data simulation unit and the BOP operation data transmission and monitoring unit based on a previously stored BOP specification database and performing a debugging process when an error occurs in the evaluation result;
A connection unit providing multiple connections for connecting the respective components in a bus form; And
And a download tool for downloading and debugging the program code in the evaluation module unit.
The method of claim 1,
The virtual driving state signal generator models a fuel cell system using a Wiener mode system identification algorithm, and a parameter value in the Wiener mode algorithm is as follows.

The method of claim 1,
The controller has a normal operation mode for controlling the operation of the BOP of the fuel cell system and a check mode that applies a test signal to the BOP and analyzes the response signal accordingly to determine whether the operation is normal. Driving control.

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