Model predictive control for thermal stress-aware power modulation of solid oxide fuel cell systems

Journal Article (2026)
Author(s)

M.H. de Lange (TU Delft - Ship Design, Production and Operations)

Pablo Segovia (Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Institut de Ròbotica i Informàtica Industrial, Barcelona)

R.R. Negenborn (TU Delft - Transport Engineering and Logistics)

L. van Biert (TU Delft - Ship Design, Production and Operations)

Research Group
Ship Design, Production and Operations
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2025.120395
More Info
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Publication Year
2026
Language
English
Research Group
Ship Design, Production and Operations
Volume number
347
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Abstract

This paper introduces a model predictive control (MPC) strategy for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) systems, introducing thermal stress-aware power modulation. The proposed MPC approach incorporates a temperature rate-of-change constraint to manage local temporal and spatial temperature gradients in the SOFC during transient power modulation. The study evaluates the sensitivity and effectiveness of the temperature rate-of-change constraint under four different constraint parameter sets, spanning a range from fast to slow power modulation. A one-dimensional spatially discretised SOFC model is employed in the simulations to assess the resulting local temperature gradients. The results of this paper indicate that the proposed MPC strategy enhances transient power tracking performance compared to the conventional approach of using an electrical current rate-of-change constraint with 1%–17%, without a significant increase in the local temporal and spatial temperature gradients in the SOFC.