Selection and testing of a Solar MicroTurbine Controller

Sammanfattning: Due to advancements in porous ceramic materials, the concept of utilizing gas turbines to produceelectricity from solar power is close to bringing a commercial competitive product to market. Since theconcept developed in the Department of Energy Technology at KTH in collaboration with otherEuropean institutions aims for a solution that utilizes small-scale technology, the power rating is lower,compared to traditional gas turbines. One challenge that this creates is that the specific cost per power unit of the different systemcomponents is going to increase. With the objective of limiting this cost increase, for the specificcomponent of turbine's control, this work describes the selection and implementation of an open sourcehardware controller. Based on previous development at the department, the work includes the dynamic simulation of a SolarMicro Gas Turbine, including starting and stopping sequences, control strategy assessment, and theimplementation of this strategy on the selected hardware, an Arduino based PLC controller. The controlprogram is tested in an emulated environment consisting of simple electronic circuits. The selectedhardware proves suitable for the tested tasks. Future work consists on conditioning some sensor outputsto the acquisition capabilities of hardware, and implementation in the real system including writing of thefinal control program.