Digital Twin of an isolated DC/DC converter for electrolysis

Digital Twin of an isolated DC/DC converter for electrolysis

Lock, Niels (TU Delft Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science; DCE&S)

Bauer, P. (mentor)
Shekhar, A. (graduation committee)
Deshmukh, R.S. (graduation committee)

Delft University of Technology

Electrical Engineering | Sustainable Energy Technology

2023-09-26

To utilize electronic power converters for water electrolysis in industrial electrical networks, reliable testing methods are required to ensure safe control operation as malfunctions can instigate hydrogen explosion and fierce electrical hazards. In this thesis, Digital Twin modeling via OPAL-RT software and hardware is compared to Simulink and PLECS simulation methods by creating the same power-to-power hydrogen network for all three with a Dual Active Bridge, a Medium Voltage DC grid, and an Alkaline electrolyzer whilst utilizing PI control via single phase shift modulation.

The Digital Twin model showed great control tuneability, while the PLECS model showed superior control performance, modeling complexity, error occurrence, and time-based performance for the designed specifications. It was concluded that the Digital Twin model needs to be developed further or reassessed
to outperform the other modeling methods. The recommendations made included re-evaluating the OPAL-RT Digital Twin results for different signal measurement methods and validating the OPAL-RT Digital Twin’s performance by comparing the results with other Digital Twin brands. Future work suggestions included creating a hardware-in-the-loop system and expanding on the current network design to include all components of a power-to-power hydrogen network.

Digital Twin
Isolated DC/DC coverter
Dual Active Bridge
Alkaline Electrolyzer
Real TIme Digital Twin
Electrolysis

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:6b41fa94-ed55-4536-9b5c-250862f805f2

Student theses

master thesis

© 2023 Niels Lock