A hardware-in-the-loop-simulation (HiLS) procedure for a direct-fired fuel cell turbine hybrid power system was evaluated for an integrated gasifier/fuel cell/turbine hybrid cycle (IGFC), implemented through the Hybrid Performance (Hyper) project at the National Energy Technology Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy (NETL). The Hyper facility is designed to explore dynamic operation of hybrid systems and quantitatively characterize such transient behaviour. It is possible to model, test and evaluate the effects of different parameters on the design and operation of a gasifier/fuel cell/gas turbine hybrid system and quantify risk mitigation strategies.
The previous implementation of emergency shut-down control strategies resulted in turbomachinery hardware failure. The primary linking event in these cases was compressor stall and surge resulting from the sudden loss of fuel during implementation of the standard double block and bleed strategy used during emergency failure. A new mitigation strategy involving automated ramps is proposed and described in detail to control the system from start-up to forced emergency shut-down. The control architecture shows how the virtual fuel cell model can be coupled to the real gas turbine safely, in all of stage of operations. The paper includes improvements to the emergency shutdown procedure, failure analyses, and the comparison of experimental data with previous results.
