Session: 5.1 - Advanced Tools for Cyber-Physical Systems and Digital Twins

Paper Number: 108548

108548 - Development of Multiphysics Dynamic Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell (Soec) Models for Hybrid Energy Systems 

Solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) can play an important role in integrated energy systems (IES) by coupling the electrolysis of water with process thermal integration; this reduces electricity consumption and therefore hydrogen production cost. A SOEC system can also balance electricity supply and demand as a resilience energy hub by producing hydrogen during periods of low electricity demand. In grid-connected applications, the SOEC may operate dynamically by varying load as the grid perturbations caused by intermittent renewable generations occur not only in diurnal cycles but also in short timeframe (e.g., sub-minute).

The authors propose several novel SOEC hybrid systems to improve the flexibility and operability of SOEC systems. Since SOEC materials are vulnerable to thermal shock, the balance of plant (BoP) in SOEC hybrid systems should be well controlled to ensure SOEC is within operational constraints. However, it is unaffordable to experimentally investigate the dynamic transients using real SOEC stacks. Alternatively, multiphysics dynamic SOEC models could faithfully represent the electrochemical and thermal performance, thus can be used in system analysis and/or cyber-physical simulation (CPS) to accelerate the R&D of SOEC hybrid systems at much lower cost and risk.

The authors have developed a 0-dimensional (lumped) SOEC model and developed an approach to extend it to a one-dimensional model with 20 nodes along the flow channel. This presentation will cover the following three subtopics to provide an overview of the SOEC models and progress in SOEC hybrid systems.

1.      Development of 0-dimensional (lumped) SOEC model. This part covers the computational domain and key assumptions and model validation against experimental data in both steady state and dynamic operations. In addition, the 0-D model built on single cell can be virtually stacked to form an SOEC stack. The impact of heat conduction boundary condition on SOEC stack performance has been quantified, and guidance is provided to correct the modelling results based on the single repeating unit (SRU) assumption.

2.      Development of 1-dimensional SOEC model. This part describes the approach to extend the developed 0-D model to 1-D. A simple but effective method to iteratively resolve current density distribution on the electrode at a given current load has been demonstrated. The difference of modelling results between 0-D and 1-D models is discussed. This part also demonstrates the real-time execution of the 1-D model on an Opal-RT real-time simulator.

3.      Implementation of the 1-D SOEC model. This part shows the progress of system analysis and/or cyber-physical simulation of SOEC hybrid systems using the developed 1-D SOEC model

Presenting Author: Biao Zhang Leidos Research Support Team (LRST), National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL)

Presenting Author Biography: Dr. Biao Zhang is a Research Scientist of the Leidos Research Support Team (LRST) at the DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). His research mainly focuses on cyber-physical simulation of hybrid energy systems.