Adaptive multistep model predictive control for tubular grid-connected solid oxide fuel cells

Abstract In the research of renewable energy power generation, tubular grid-connected solid oxide fuel cells with the apparent advantage in voltage regulation have been widely applied in power systems. Recently, a model predictive control has been applied to consider the nonlinear constraints of tubular grid-connected solid oxide fuel cells, which cannot be considered by a proportional-integral-derivative controller. While both model predictive control and proportional-integral-derivative controller achieve only 80% fuel efficiency, which should be improved. An adaptive multistep model predictive control (AMMPC) is proposed to improve the fuel efficiency of tubular grid-connected solid oxide fuel cells and simultaneously consider systemic thermodynamics and electrochemistry constraints. The AMMPC contains the advantages of adaptive control and multistep model predictive control. Both adaptive two-step model predictive control and three-step model predictive control are designed for tubular grid-connected solid oxide fuel cells. With the more accurate prediction ability, the AMMPC improves the fuel efficiency of tubular grid-connected solid oxide fuel cells with higher fuel efficiency (86.5%) than model predictive control (80%) and proportional-integral-derivative (80%). Both feasibility and effectiveness of the AMMPC are verified with high fuel efficiency under both simple and complex power demands cases.