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US 12,046,897 B2Granted
Hybrid fuel cell system for load following and backup in a microgrid and method of operating thereof
AssigneeBloom Energy Corporation
InventorsPrasad Pmsvvsv, Jayakumar Krishnadass
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for operating a fuel cell system includes drawing a base level DC electric energy from a first fuel cell of a first type to a combined DC bus, measuring a DC voltage at the combined DC bus, determining whether the DC voltage at the combined DC bus falls short of a DC voltage threshold, and drawing a variable DC electric energy from a second fuel cell of a second type different from the first type in response to determining that the DC voltage at the combined DC bus falls short of the DC voltage threshold.
Claims18
A fuel cell system, comprising:
- a first fuel cell of a first electrolyte type;
- a second fuel cell of a second electrolyte type different from the first electrolyte type;
- a first direct current (DC)/DC converter electrically connected to the first fuel cell via a first DC bus;
- a second DC/DC converter electrically connected to the second fuel cell via a second DC bus;
- a DC/alternating current (AC) inverter electrically connected in parallel to the first DC/DC converter and to the second DC/DC converter via a combined DC bus;
- an electric energy storage system;
- a third DC/DC converter electrically connected to the electric energy storage system and configured to output DC electric energy from the electric energy storage system to the DC/AC inverter, wherein the DC/AC inverter is electrically connected in parallel to the first DC/DC converter, to the second DC/DC converter, and to the third DC/DC converter via the combined DC bus;
- and
- a controller configured with controller executable instructions to perform operations comprising:
- drawing DC electric energy from the second fuel cell and a base level DC electric energy from the first fuel cell;
- determining whether a DC voltage at the combined DC bus exceeds a DC voltage threshold;
- and
- decreasing drawing the DC electric energy from the second fuel cell to a level such that the DC voltage at the combined DC bus falls short of or equals to the DC voltage threshold and continuing drawing the DC electric energy from the second fuel cell at the level and drawing the base level DC electric energy from the first fuel cell in response to determining that the DC voltage at the combined DC bus exceeds the DC voltage threshold.
10 more elements
A method for operating a fuel cell system, comprising:
- drawing, via a first direct current (DC)/DC converter, a base level DC electric energy from a first fuel cell of a first electrolyte type to a combined DC bus;
- measuring a DC voltage at the combined DC bus;
- determining whether the DC voltage at the combined DC bus falls short of a DC voltage threshold;
- and
- drawing, via a second DC/DC converter, a variable DC electric energy from a second fuel cell of a second electrolyte type different from the first electrolyte type in response to determining that the DC voltage at the combined DC bus falls short of the DC voltage threshold;
- determining whether the DC voltage at the combined DC bus exceeds the DC voltage threshold;
- and
- decreasing drawing, via the second DC/DC converter, the variable DC electric energy from the second fuel cell to a level such that the DC voltage at the combined DC bus falls short of or equals to the DC voltage threshold and continuing drawing of the DC electric energy from the second fuel cell at the level and drawing the base level DC electric energy from the first fuel cell in response to determining that the DC voltage at the combined DC bus exceeds the DC voltage threshold;
- drawing, via a third DC/DC converter, DC electric energy from an electric energy storage system in response to determining that the DC voltage at the combined DC bus falls short of the DC voltage threshold;
- and
- providing a combined DC energy from the combined DC bus to a DC/alternating current (AC) inverter which is electrically connected in parallel to the first DC/DC converter, the second DC/DC converter, and third DC/DC converter via the combined DC bus.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.