Grid-Connected Microbial Fuel Cell Modeling and Control in Distributed Generation

Abstract

Water shortages and water pollution have seriously threatened the sustainable development of the community. The grid-connected microbial fuel cell is an effective way to control the cost of wastewater treatment plants. Moreover, it solves the problem of low efficiency and high energy consumption. In view of the characteristics of strong coupling, non-linearity, and internal load in the process of microbial fuel cell grid connection, it is necessary to design the grid-connected unit of power electronic device. Based on the establishment of the microbial fuel cell stack model, the stability control and the constant power control scheme were designed for the chopper and inverter, respectively. The simulation results showed that the control strategy with the combination of voltage stabilizer and constant power can make a grid-connected system of all phase voltage and frequency output. The three-phase voltage Uabc was steady at 7 h and the voltage amplitude was controlled at roughly 380 V, according to the output voltage waveform. The value was 50 Hz, which satisfies the criteria for grid connection.

Key findings

• ▸The microbial fuel cell stack model was established and used to design a grid-connected unit with power electronic devices.
• ▸The control strategy achieved stable output voltage and frequency, meeting grid connection criteria.
• ▸The system showed a steady three-phase voltage of 380 V and frequency of 50 Hz at 7 hours.

Keywords

Identifiers

DOI

10.3390/pr11020466

Journal

Processes

Year

2023