Model-Based Predictive Control of a Solar Hybrid Thermochemical Reactor for High-Temperature Steam Gasification of Biomass

Youssef Karout, Axel Curcio, Julien Eynard, Stéphane Thil, Sylvain Rodat, Stéphane Abanades, Valéry Vuillerme and Stéphane Grieu ()
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Youssef Karout: Processes, Materials and Solar Energy Laboratory, PROMES-CNRS, Rambla de la Thermodynamique, Tecnosud, 66100 Perpignan, France
Axel Curcio: Processes, Materials and Solar Energy Laboratory, PROMES-CNRS, 7 Rue du Four Solaire, 66120 Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via, France
Julien Eynard: Processes, Materials and Solar Energy Laboratory, PROMES-CNRS, Rambla de la Thermodynamique, Tecnosud, 66100 Perpignan, France
Stéphane Thil: Processes, Materials and Solar Energy Laboratory, PROMES-CNRS, Rambla de la Thermodynamique, Tecnosud, 66100 Perpignan, France
Sylvain Rodat: Processes, Materials and Solar Energy Laboratory, PROMES-CNRS, 7 Rue du Four Solaire, 66120 Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via, France
Stéphane Abanades: Processes, Materials and Solar Energy Laboratory, PROMES-CNRS, 7 Rue du Four Solaire, 66120 Font-Romeu-Odeillo-Via, France
Valéry Vuillerme: Thermodynamic and Solar Technologies Laboratory, CEA-INES, 50 Avenue Lac, 73375 Bourget-du-Lac, France
Stéphane Grieu: Processes, Materials and Solar Energy Laboratory, PROMES-CNRS, Rambla de la Thermodynamique, Tecnosud, 66100 Perpignan, France

Clean Technol., 2023, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-23

Abstract: The present paper deals with both the modeling and the dynamic control of a solar hybrid thermochemical reactor designed to produce syngas through the high-temperature steam gasification of biomass. First, a model of the reactor based on the thermodynamic equilibrium is presented. The Cantera toolbox is used. Then, a model-based predictive controller (MPC) is proposed with the aim of maintaining the reactor’s temperature at its nominal value, thus preserving the reactor’s stability. This is completed by adjusting the mirrors’ defocusing factor or burning a part of the biomass to compensate for variations of direct normal irradiance (DNI) round the clock. This controller is compared to a reference controller, which is defined as a combination of a rule-based controller and an adaptive proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controller with optimized gains. The robustness of the MPC controller to forecast errors is also studied by testing different DNI forecasts: perfect forecasts, smart persistence forecasts and image-based forecasts. Because of a high optimization time, the Cantera function is replaced with a 2D interpolation function. The results show that (1) the developed MPC controller outperforms the reference controller, (2) the integration of image-based DNI forecasts produces lower root mean squared error (RMSE) values, and (3) the optimization time is significantly reduced thanks to the proposed interpolation function.

Keywords: solar hybrid thermochemical reactor; syngas production; concentrated solar energy; direct normal irradiance; model-based predictive control (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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