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Fuzzy control and virtual instrumentation for superheated steam electrolysis in Solid Oxide Cells

Abstract:

At the Escuela Polite´cnica Nacional, University of Technology from Quito-Ecuador, it is researching and developing a prototype of a Solid Oxide Electrolyser Cell (SOEC), for the production of hydrogen by electrolysis of superheated steam. Traditional methods of automatic control and instrumentation have not proved effective in this case, the high complexity of the processes and the nonlinear characteristics of the variables involved, therefore it is necessary to use new forms of intelligent control, such as fuzzy control and equally high-tech instrumentation as virtual instrumentation. With this goal has been developed and installed in the SOEC a fuzzy controller, which requires action of a fuzzifier on the input variables, then is defined a set of fuzzy logic rules which is known as the fuzzy inference system or reasoning; and finally the action of a defuzzifier on the output variables resulting. The fuzzy inference system must produce the greatest amount of hydrogen in the shortest time. It has also been developed and installed in the SOEC a virtual instrumentation system based on open source platform, developed by the authors of this research. The respective probes were installed for the input variables and output variables. Has been performed the Programming of the open source platform; and, was installed and programmed a HMI (Human Machine Interface) to process controlling and monitoring with a graphics-based visualization, thereby achieving provide virtual instrumentation for the SOEC. It has demonstrated the high effectiveness of implementing a fuzzy controller and virtual instrumentation for the control and real-time monitoring of the processes occurring in the SOEC. These installed systems will be essential to the phases of: parametric sensitivity analysis and validation of the prototype of SOEC system, which is being researched and developed. The state of the art and perspectives of these methods are also evaluated.