Project Description

The use of renewable energy sources could significantly reduce local and global dependence on fossil fuels, leading to a substantial decrease in pollutant gas emissions. Unfortunately, several design and operational challenges limit their widespread application. Most energy-related devices (e.g., batteries, fuel cells, wind turbines) lack appropriate control strategies capable of optimizing their individual performance and maximizing their benefit when integrated into a smart grid. Moreover, the intermittent availability of renewable energy sources hinders their penetration into power grids.

Hydrogen, seen as an energy vector, has the potential to decouple the generation and use of renewable energy. To achieve such a potential, the hydrogen production process must be safe, efficient, sustainable, and reliable. In this sense, alcohol steam reforming (ASR) has become a promising technology for local hydrogen production under demand. However, the successful implementation of such a reforming process requires the design of advanced control strategies to ensure the optimal operation of the device. To date, relatively few studies have focused on the previous aspect. Some of the previous research only addresses simplified approaches (e.g., PID control or control based on linear models). Therefore, the overall aim of this project is to advance collaborative research on the advanced modeling and estimation/control of ASR for sustainable hydrogen production.

Consortium:
- Institut de Robòtica i Informàtica Industrial (IRI), Spain
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA.
- TU Dortmund, Germany.
- Univesity of Pisa, Italia

Project supported by the call "I-LINK 2025" from CSIC