System Integration and Electrical Design of Fuel Cell Powered UPS

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Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Sähkötekniikan korkeakoulu | Master's thesis

Date

2024-01-22

Department

Major/Subject

Sustainable Energy Systems and Markets

Mcode

ELEC3048

Degree programme

Master's Programme in Advanced Energy Solutions

Language

en

Pages

66

Series

Abstract

Critical data center loads rely on diesel generators and battery combinations for backup power. The carbon emissions from these backup generators pollute the atmosphere and contribute to raising global warming threats. To bring a cut in global greenhouse gas emissions and local pollution in densely populated areas, it is necessary to find renewable energy backup solutions for data centers. Several renewable energy systems like photo voltaic cells, wind turbines, fuel cells, etc. are available in the market. If all these energy systems are gauged on application-specific criteria, fuel cells come out to be a promising solution. Fuel cells can provide continuous power for long periods subject to the availability of hydrogen fuel. However, due to a slow startup time and slow dynamic response to load changes, the fuel cell’s power needs to be buffered up with another storage device. Depending upon goals, different hybridization models are available in the literature. For data-center specific applications, the battery and fuel cell hybrid model has the capability of providing backup power, running as a stand-alone generation source and the battery can coup the slow dynamic response of fuel cell systems. For Hybridization, different hybridization schemes are available in the literature like direct hybridization, or hybridization via DC-DC converters. This thesis used three hybridization schemes and validated their operation through simulations in Simulink. All simulations showed the viability of their operation, but the best among them turned out to be a full DC-DC hybrid scheme having dedicated DC-DC converters for fuel cells and batteries because of higher control over operation, higher efficiency, optimization of operation, and bright market prospects.

Description

Supervisor

Pouresmaeil, Edris

Thesis advisor

Kohtamaki, Tuomo

Keywords

fuel cells, hybrid energy storage systems (HESS), high performance power converters, UPS, renewable energy

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