His recent works include the applications of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) technolog... more His recent works include the applications of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) technology to transportation. In addition, he has conducted research on the applications of soft computing methodologies to industrial processes including, desalination processes, oil refineries, fuzzy control of jet engines, and fuzzy controllers for car engines for the past 25 years. He has supervised 19 Ph.D. and M.S. students to completion during the last 25 years. He has published one book and more than 155 book chapters, scholarly journal papers, and refereed conference proceedings. His research projects have been funded by many agencies, including NSF, FPL/DOE, Broward School County, and Motorola, Inc., as well as several other sources. In 1996 and 2001, Zilouchian was awarded for the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at FAU. He has also received 2003 and 2004 College of Engineering Dean's awards in recognition of his contributions toward achievement of the goals of COE at FAU. He has served as session chair and organizer of 10 different sessions in the international conferences within the last five years. Zilouchian is currently an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering out of Oxford, U.K.
In this paper a performance comparison is conducted between a new grid-tied PV tracking system an... more In this paper a performance comparison is conducted between a new grid-tied PV tracking system and a fixed mounting grid-tied PV system with identical solar panels as well as the same rated powers in one-year period. These systems were installed at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Boca Raton, Florida, started operating in August 2014. First, an overview of the entire system is presented followed by the description of system architecture design. A detailed statistical comparison is done for four months in four seasons. At the end, the annual energy output of tracker and non-tracker units is extracted and analyzed. Two important performance factors such as annual power production of each array and the amount of system CO2 emission reduction are calculated. It is concluded from final results that the single axis tracker, which continuously tracks the sun from east to west during daytime, works moderately in south Florida region and therefore it requires more thorough researches to improve the system efficiency.
Integrated Systems, Design and Technology 2010, 2011
... Journal of Power Sources 172, 749759 (2007) 18. Perez, A., Abtahi, H., Zilouchian, A.: Pulse... more ... Journal of Power Sources 172, 749759 (2007) 18. Perez, A., Abtahi, H., Zilouchian, A.: Pulse-Width Modulation of Hydrogen Delivery for PEM Fuel Cells. ... In: Proceedings of 19th Annual Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics, Miami (2006) 21. ...
2005 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics
In this paper, several control strategies for water management of proton exchange membrane (PEM) ... more In this paper, several control strategies for water management of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells are presented. The controllers were designed, developed and implemented in Fuel Cell Laboratory at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in order to increase the efficiency and performance of PEM fuel cells. Two different pulsing approaches were implemented. The amplitude variations of the pulses were controlled through a regulator on the air source pump. Other parameters were tuned using computer software in conjunction with A/D, D/A, and electronic circuits. In addition, a fuzzy controller is proposed for water management of PEM based on Mamadani inference systems. The preliminary experimental results demonstrate the effective of the method.
The history, technology, economics, regulation and vulnerability to electromagnetic pulse (EMP) e... more The history, technology, economics, regulation and vulnerability to electromagnetic pulse (EMP) effects of cable television are examined. Recommendations are made concerning FEMA integration of cable television systems into the FEMA emergency communications system and the protection of cable television systems for EMP effects.
... Furthermore, the controller implementation for the improvement of the performance of system e... more ... Furthermore, the controller implementation for the improvement of the performance of system efficiency is discussed. REFERENCES [1] Mench, Matthew M., (2008). Fuel Cell Engines, 1st edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., USA. ...
A novel method for a day-ahead optimal operation of a hybrid microgrid system including fuel cell... more A novel method for a day-ahead optimal operation of a hybrid microgrid system including fuel cells, photovoltaic arrays, a microturbine, and battery energy storage in order to fulfill the required load demand is presented in this paper. In the proposed system, the microgrid has access to the main utility grid in order to exchange power when required. Available municipal waste is utilized to produce the hydrogen required for running the fuel cells, and natural gas will be used as the backup source. In the proposed method, an energy scheduling is introduced to optimize the generating unit power outputs for the next day, as well as the power flow with the main grid, in order to minimize the operational costs and produced greenhouse gases emissions. The nature of renewable energies and electric power consumption is both intermittent and unpredictable, and the uncertainty related to the PV array power generation and power consumption has been considered in the next-day energy scheduling. In order to model uncertainties, some scenarios are produced according to Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, and microgrid optimal energy scheduling is analyzed under the generated scenarios. In addition, various scenarios created by MC simulations are applied in order to solve unit commitment (UC) problems. The microgrid's day-ahead operation and emission costs are considered as the objective functions, and the particle swarm optimization algorithm is employed to solve the optimization problem. Overall, the proposed model is capable of minimizing the system costs, as well as the unfavorable influence of uncertainties on the microgrid's profit, by generating different scenarios.
Smart homes are one part of smart grid and smart distributed generation is one of the important c... more Smart homes are one part of smart grid and smart distributed generation is one of the important components of smart homes. To minimize the generation costs to investors, a novel approach for smart production of energy in residential buildings is introduced in this paper. CHCP technologies offer a more beneficial way to provide home with heat, cooling and power in addition to advantages of high energy efficiency, emission reduction, and independency from centralized power networks. In this research, an energy dispatch algorithm is presented to minimize the total cost of energy (e.g., cost of natural gas into the engine and boiler and also cost of electricity from the grid) considering energy efficiency constrains for individual components. Additionally, the possibility of buying from or selling electrical power to the electrical local utility is investigated. The system consists of various kinds of loads (electrical, thermal and cooling) and energy resources (combined heat, power and...
In this study, an optimal energy scheduling of a standalone microgrid under system uncertainties ... more In this study, an optimal energy scheduling of a standalone microgrid under system uncertainties is investigated and several operational strategies are tested to evaluate the system performance. The main objective of the proposed optimization energy management system is to improve energy utilization efficiency, decrease system fuel cost and gas emissions reduction by planning generations of energy resources hourly for the next day. The system is modeled as a constrained single-objective optimization problem in order to minimize the operation and generated emission costs. Employing an advanced dynamic programming method, the optimization problem is solved. In order to achieve optimal utilization of renewable resources in a microgrid environment and system costeffective operations, the effectiveness of a battery storage unit has to be examined. Two different operational policies are investigated to examine the system behavior, where the energy production of a microgrid is supplied by generation units with and without access to a battery storage system. The obtained results show a considerable reduction in system total cost and produced emissions when the MG has access to battery storage system in the proposed second policy. Simulation results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed technique in microgrid energy planning and implementation.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of pulsing reactant flows on the performan... more The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of pulsing reactant flows on the performance of a PEMFC at low current density. This study considers a full range of pulsing flows and their effect in voltage over time. The factors evaluated were voltage, pressure, and flow rates of each reactant flow over time. A specific current density was set for the experiments. The experiments were performed at lower flow rates and temperatures of reactants than in standard operating conditions. The experiments used constant temperature of reactants as well as constant relative humidity. Comparison made between continuous flow and several sets of pulsing flows for hydrogen and air were developed. Pulsing of reactants opens an opportunity as a practical water management procedure. In addition, this technique helps extending performance range on PEMFC when a limited amount of reactants is supplied. The data collected was presented in graphical form.
Performance prediction of a commercial proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system by using a... more Performance prediction of a commercial proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system by using artificial neural networks (ANNs) is investigated. Two artificial neural networks including the back-propagation (BP) and radial basis function (RBF) networks are constructed, tested and compared. Experimental data as well as preprocess data are utilized to determine the accuracy and speed of several prediction algorithms. The performance of the BP network is investigated by varying error goals, number of neurons, number of layers and training algorithms. The prediction performance of RBF network is also presented. The simulation results have shown that both the BP and RBF networks can successfully predict the stack voltage and current of a commercial PEM fuel cell system. Speed and accuracy of the prediction algorithms are quite satisfactory for the real-time control of this particular application.
Florida Atlantic University has recently developed a prototype interdisciplinary undergraduate fu... more Florida Atlantic University has recently developed a prototype interdisciplinary undergraduate fuel cell (FC) laboratory. The new laboratory addresses simple and effective approaches for the implementation of fuel cell technology and its applications through the innovative industrial design techniques, incorporation of real-time sensory interfacing and other applicable industrial advances. The implementation phase of the laboratory has been recently achieved in collaboration with a leading industry with over 15 years experience in design, fabrication and implementation of fuel cells in both stationary and mobile applications. Students from electrical, mechanical, ocean and computer engineering are currently benefiting from opportunities the laboratory provides in design, experiment and simulation of fuel cells. The laboratory consists of a prototype experimental station. The station contains three microcomputer, three Data Acquisition boards, several sensors and actuators, and eight experimental setups. Authors have recently offered a new course entitled "Introduction to Fuel Cell Technology" in conjunction with the FC laboratory. In addition, multidisciplinary student groups from senior design classes are utilizing the lab for FC design projects. It is anticipated that the current development of the new laboratory will have a direct impact on undergraduate education by creating a focal point for interdisciplinary learning, a balance between theoretical and hands-on experience in undergraduate teaching, and application of these educational tools in a vibrant technology sector. The evaluation plan for the course materials focuses on three general areas. The first focus is on the assessment of the course modules. The second focus is related to student-identified strengths/weaknesses of the course/modules. Finally, the third focus is to document the course/curricular refinements resulting from the evaluative data obtained by end of spring 2008 semester.
2008 3rd IEEE Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications, 2008
To improve the control system performance of wheeled autonomous mobile robots, an embedded contro... more To improve the control system performance of wheeled autonomous mobile robots, an embedded control system was designed and implemented with advanced microprocessor. Based on the hierarchical control method, two processors were applied to different control levels so as to attain complicated high-speed algorithm and real-time control. Multiple sensors were introduced to sense the environmental conditions with implemented via fuzzy logic for accurate control of moving route. Then, an actual status of target position could be judged visually. The system thus acquires many advantage such as modular structure, control flexibility and high reliability. The actual application results revealed that the system is good at both real-time response and robustness.
The energy load profile for chicken farms indicates that between the lighting and fan loads, a go... more The energy load profile for chicken farms indicates that between the lighting and fan loads, a good portion of the overall demand can be satisfied by solar photovoltaic (PV) systems during the daylight hours, especially the peak fan loads and sunny conditions match quite well. To be completely off the grid however, there is a need for providing power to fans and some lighting after dusk and before dawn. In this study, the conversion of the bio-waste into bio-gas and powering small micro-turbines is evaluated. Storing solar electric power in batteries is an option, but costly and not ideal. Bio-gas on the other hand is a by-product of the chicken farm, can be generated and stored on site, and used as fuel for small, reliable micro-turbines.
2016 IEEE Power and Energy Conference at Illinois (PECI), 2016
This paper presents a new approach for the optimization of photovoltaic-wind hybrid systems with ... more This paper presents a new approach for the optimization of photovoltaic-wind hybrid systems with battery storage to meet the load requirements. In this study, a 24-hour ahead energy management for a microgrid is utilized. The objectives aim at raising efficiency of energy utilization, minimizing operational cost and reducing environmental effects of energy usage. Also a demand response (DR) program is considered as one of the cost-effective energy alternatives. Based on the prediction of available energy from the PV and wind generators, battery storage availability, load prediction, micro gas turbine (μGT) and main grid emission characteristics, a central energy management system calculates a day-ahead plan of power references for the gas turbine, power purchased from the grid, power sold to the grid, status of the battery and controllable loads. A multi-objective optimization is implemented in order to minimize the energy cost and greenhouse gas emissions.
In this extended abstract the modeling and controller design of a Nexa PEM fuel cell are presente... more In this extended abstract the modeling and controller design of a Nexa PEM fuel cell are presented. In the modeling section, two neueal network algorithms are utlized to predict the performace of the fuel cell system. In sequel, an Intelligent controller has designed, developed and implemented in order to increase the efficiency of PEM Fuel Cells using soft computing. The experimental results demonstrate the effectivness of the proposed method.
This paper relates to the construction and testing of a solarpowered golf cart and the future inc... more This paper relates to the construction and testing of a solarpowered golf cart and the future incorporation of a fuel cell system to the existing solar cart. The prototype built in 2004 [fig 1] proved to be very successful. The combination of unique features such as the tracking of the sun resulted in the increase of output power with respect to other solar carts. In addition, the cart turns into a small power generator when is needed. This can be used to supply energy to en emergency load in case of a natural disaster. The cart can also be used as a maintenance cart. Utility tools such as hedge trimmers can be run off the cart, or simply be charged from the cart.
This paper evaluates the performance of two solar arrays located in Palm City, Florida. The main ... more This paper evaluates the performance of two solar arrays located in Palm City, Florida. The main goal of this study is to compare the annual performance of a solar array with hybrid Smart-Silicon Thin-Film panels and a conventional solar array. The system was designed and installed for two photovoltaic arrays with the same number of panels that started operation in December 2014. First, an overview of the entire system is presented followed by the description of system architecture design. A statistical comparison is done for system daily and monthly power production. Also, the annual energy output of hybrid and conventional units is extracted and analyzed. At the end, annual power production of each array and the amount of system CO2 emission reduction are calculated. It is concluded from final results that the hybrid solar system has better efficiency in wintertime and performs marginally better than the one with regular solar panels. In order to improve the system efficiency, more precise researches are required in terms of positioning and temperature sensitivity.
His recent works include the applications of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) technolog... more His recent works include the applications of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) technology to transportation. In addition, he has conducted research on the applications of soft computing methodologies to industrial processes including, desalination processes, oil refineries, fuzzy control of jet engines, and fuzzy controllers for car engines for the past 25 years. He has supervised 19 Ph.D. and M.S. students to completion during the last 25 years. He has published one book and more than 155 book chapters, scholarly journal papers, and refereed conference proceedings. His research projects have been funded by many agencies, including NSF, FPL/DOE, Broward School County, and Motorola, Inc., as well as several other sources. In 1996 and 2001, Zilouchian was awarded for the Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching at FAU. He has also received 2003 and 2004 College of Engineering Dean's awards in recognition of his contributions toward achievement of the goals of COE at FAU. He has served as session chair and organizer of 10 different sessions in the international conferences within the last five years. Zilouchian is currently an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Electrical and Computer Engineering out of Oxford, U.K.
In this paper a performance comparison is conducted between a new grid-tied PV tracking system an... more In this paper a performance comparison is conducted between a new grid-tied PV tracking system and a fixed mounting grid-tied PV system with identical solar panels as well as the same rated powers in one-year period. These systems were installed at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in Boca Raton, Florida, started operating in August 2014. First, an overview of the entire system is presented followed by the description of system architecture design. A detailed statistical comparison is done for four months in four seasons. At the end, the annual energy output of tracker and non-tracker units is extracted and analyzed. Two important performance factors such as annual power production of each array and the amount of system CO2 emission reduction are calculated. It is concluded from final results that the single axis tracker, which continuously tracks the sun from east to west during daytime, works moderately in south Florida region and therefore it requires more thorough researches to improve the system efficiency.
Integrated Systems, Design and Technology 2010, 2011
... Journal of Power Sources 172, 749759 (2007) 18. Perez, A., Abtahi, H., Zilouchian, A.: Pulse... more ... Journal of Power Sources 172, 749759 (2007) 18. Perez, A., Abtahi, H., Zilouchian, A.: Pulse-Width Modulation of Hydrogen Delivery for PEM Fuel Cells. ... In: Proceedings of 19th Annual Florida Conference on Recent Advances in Robotics, Miami (2006) 21. ...
2005 IEEE International Conference on Systems, Man and Cybernetics
In this paper, several control strategies for water management of proton exchange membrane (PEM) ... more In this paper, several control strategies for water management of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells are presented. The controllers were designed, developed and implemented in Fuel Cell Laboratory at Florida Atlantic University (FAU) in order to increase the efficiency and performance of PEM fuel cells. Two different pulsing approaches were implemented. The amplitude variations of the pulses were controlled through a regulator on the air source pump. Other parameters were tuned using computer software in conjunction with A/D, D/A, and electronic circuits. In addition, a fuzzy controller is proposed for water management of PEM based on Mamadani inference systems. The preliminary experimental results demonstrate the effective of the method.
The history, technology, economics, regulation and vulnerability to electromagnetic pulse (EMP) e... more The history, technology, economics, regulation and vulnerability to electromagnetic pulse (EMP) effects of cable television are examined. Recommendations are made concerning FEMA integration of cable television systems into the FEMA emergency communications system and the protection of cable television systems for EMP effects.
... Furthermore, the controller implementation for the improvement of the performance of system e... more ... Furthermore, the controller implementation for the improvement of the performance of system efficiency is discussed. REFERENCES [1] Mench, Matthew M., (2008). Fuel Cell Engines, 1st edition, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., USA. ...
A novel method for a day-ahead optimal operation of a hybrid microgrid system including fuel cell... more A novel method for a day-ahead optimal operation of a hybrid microgrid system including fuel cells, photovoltaic arrays, a microturbine, and battery energy storage in order to fulfill the required load demand is presented in this paper. In the proposed system, the microgrid has access to the main utility grid in order to exchange power when required. Available municipal waste is utilized to produce the hydrogen required for running the fuel cells, and natural gas will be used as the backup source. In the proposed method, an energy scheduling is introduced to optimize the generating unit power outputs for the next day, as well as the power flow with the main grid, in order to minimize the operational costs and produced greenhouse gases emissions. The nature of renewable energies and electric power consumption is both intermittent and unpredictable, and the uncertainty related to the PV array power generation and power consumption has been considered in the next-day energy scheduling. In order to model uncertainties, some scenarios are produced according to Monte Carlo (MC) simulations, and microgrid optimal energy scheduling is analyzed under the generated scenarios. In addition, various scenarios created by MC simulations are applied in order to solve unit commitment (UC) problems. The microgrid's day-ahead operation and emission costs are considered as the objective functions, and the particle swarm optimization algorithm is employed to solve the optimization problem. Overall, the proposed model is capable of minimizing the system costs, as well as the unfavorable influence of uncertainties on the microgrid's profit, by generating different scenarios.
Smart homes are one part of smart grid and smart distributed generation is one of the important c... more Smart homes are one part of smart grid and smart distributed generation is one of the important components of smart homes. To minimize the generation costs to investors, a novel approach for smart production of energy in residential buildings is introduced in this paper. CHCP technologies offer a more beneficial way to provide home with heat, cooling and power in addition to advantages of high energy efficiency, emission reduction, and independency from centralized power networks. In this research, an energy dispatch algorithm is presented to minimize the total cost of energy (e.g., cost of natural gas into the engine and boiler and also cost of electricity from the grid) considering energy efficiency constrains for individual components. Additionally, the possibility of buying from or selling electrical power to the electrical local utility is investigated. The system consists of various kinds of loads (electrical, thermal and cooling) and energy resources (combined heat, power and...
In this study, an optimal energy scheduling of a standalone microgrid under system uncertainties ... more In this study, an optimal energy scheduling of a standalone microgrid under system uncertainties is investigated and several operational strategies are tested to evaluate the system performance. The main objective of the proposed optimization energy management system is to improve energy utilization efficiency, decrease system fuel cost and gas emissions reduction by planning generations of energy resources hourly for the next day. The system is modeled as a constrained single-objective optimization problem in order to minimize the operation and generated emission costs. Employing an advanced dynamic programming method, the optimization problem is solved. In order to achieve optimal utilization of renewable resources in a microgrid environment and system costeffective operations, the effectiveness of a battery storage unit has to be examined. Two different operational policies are investigated to examine the system behavior, where the energy production of a microgrid is supplied by generation units with and without access to a battery storage system. The obtained results show a considerable reduction in system total cost and produced emissions when the MG has access to battery storage system in the proposed second policy. Simulation results demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed technique in microgrid energy planning and implementation.
The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of pulsing reactant flows on the performan... more The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of pulsing reactant flows on the performance of a PEMFC at low current density. This study considers a full range of pulsing flows and their effect in voltage over time. The factors evaluated were voltage, pressure, and flow rates of each reactant flow over time. A specific current density was set for the experiments. The experiments were performed at lower flow rates and temperatures of reactants than in standard operating conditions. The experiments used constant temperature of reactants as well as constant relative humidity. Comparison made between continuous flow and several sets of pulsing flows for hydrogen and air were developed. Pulsing of reactants opens an opportunity as a practical water management procedure. In addition, this technique helps extending performance range on PEMFC when a limited amount of reactants is supplied. The data collected was presented in graphical form.
Performance prediction of a commercial proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system by using a... more Performance prediction of a commercial proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell system by using artificial neural networks (ANNs) is investigated. Two artificial neural networks including the back-propagation (BP) and radial basis function (RBF) networks are constructed, tested and compared. Experimental data as well as preprocess data are utilized to determine the accuracy and speed of several prediction algorithms. The performance of the BP network is investigated by varying error goals, number of neurons, number of layers and training algorithms. The prediction performance of RBF network is also presented. The simulation results have shown that both the BP and RBF networks can successfully predict the stack voltage and current of a commercial PEM fuel cell system. Speed and accuracy of the prediction algorithms are quite satisfactory for the real-time control of this particular application.
Florida Atlantic University has recently developed a prototype interdisciplinary undergraduate fu... more Florida Atlantic University has recently developed a prototype interdisciplinary undergraduate fuel cell (FC) laboratory. The new laboratory addresses simple and effective approaches for the implementation of fuel cell technology and its applications through the innovative industrial design techniques, incorporation of real-time sensory interfacing and other applicable industrial advances. The implementation phase of the laboratory has been recently achieved in collaboration with a leading industry with over 15 years experience in design, fabrication and implementation of fuel cells in both stationary and mobile applications. Students from electrical, mechanical, ocean and computer engineering are currently benefiting from opportunities the laboratory provides in design, experiment and simulation of fuel cells. The laboratory consists of a prototype experimental station. The station contains three microcomputer, three Data Acquisition boards, several sensors and actuators, and eight experimental setups. Authors have recently offered a new course entitled "Introduction to Fuel Cell Technology" in conjunction with the FC laboratory. In addition, multidisciplinary student groups from senior design classes are utilizing the lab for FC design projects. It is anticipated that the current development of the new laboratory will have a direct impact on undergraduate education by creating a focal point for interdisciplinary learning, a balance between theoretical and hands-on experience in undergraduate teaching, and application of these educational tools in a vibrant technology sector. The evaluation plan for the course materials focuses on three general areas. The first focus is on the assessment of the course modules. The second focus is related to student-identified strengths/weaknesses of the course/modules. Finally, the third focus is to document the course/curricular refinements resulting from the evaluative data obtained by end of spring 2008 semester.
2008 3rd IEEE Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applications, 2008
To improve the control system performance of wheeled autonomous mobile robots, an embedded contro... more To improve the control system performance of wheeled autonomous mobile robots, an embedded control system was designed and implemented with advanced microprocessor. Based on the hierarchical control method, two processors were applied to different control levels so as to attain complicated high-speed algorithm and real-time control. Multiple sensors were introduced to sense the environmental conditions with implemented via fuzzy logic for accurate control of moving route. Then, an actual status of target position could be judged visually. The system thus acquires many advantage such as modular structure, control flexibility and high reliability. The actual application results revealed that the system is good at both real-time response and robustness.
The energy load profile for chicken farms indicates that between the lighting and fan loads, a go... more The energy load profile for chicken farms indicates that between the lighting and fan loads, a good portion of the overall demand can be satisfied by solar photovoltaic (PV) systems during the daylight hours, especially the peak fan loads and sunny conditions match quite well. To be completely off the grid however, there is a need for providing power to fans and some lighting after dusk and before dawn. In this study, the conversion of the bio-waste into bio-gas and powering small micro-turbines is evaluated. Storing solar electric power in batteries is an option, but costly and not ideal. Bio-gas on the other hand is a by-product of the chicken farm, can be generated and stored on site, and used as fuel for small, reliable micro-turbines.
2016 IEEE Power and Energy Conference at Illinois (PECI), 2016
This paper presents a new approach for the optimization of photovoltaic-wind hybrid systems with ... more This paper presents a new approach for the optimization of photovoltaic-wind hybrid systems with battery storage to meet the load requirements. In this study, a 24-hour ahead energy management for a microgrid is utilized. The objectives aim at raising efficiency of energy utilization, minimizing operational cost and reducing environmental effects of energy usage. Also a demand response (DR) program is considered as one of the cost-effective energy alternatives. Based on the prediction of available energy from the PV and wind generators, battery storage availability, load prediction, micro gas turbine (μGT) and main grid emission characteristics, a central energy management system calculates a day-ahead plan of power references for the gas turbine, power purchased from the grid, power sold to the grid, status of the battery and controllable loads. A multi-objective optimization is implemented in order to minimize the energy cost and greenhouse gas emissions.
In this extended abstract the modeling and controller design of a Nexa PEM fuel cell are presente... more In this extended abstract the modeling and controller design of a Nexa PEM fuel cell are presented. In the modeling section, two neueal network algorithms are utlized to predict the performace of the fuel cell system. In sequel, an Intelligent controller has designed, developed and implemented in order to increase the efficiency of PEM Fuel Cells using soft computing. The experimental results demonstrate the effectivness of the proposed method.
This paper relates to the construction and testing of a solarpowered golf cart and the future inc... more This paper relates to the construction and testing of a solarpowered golf cart and the future incorporation of a fuel cell system to the existing solar cart. The prototype built in 2004 [fig 1] proved to be very successful. The combination of unique features such as the tracking of the sun resulted in the increase of output power with respect to other solar carts. In addition, the cart turns into a small power generator when is needed. This can be used to supply energy to en emergency load in case of a natural disaster. The cart can also be used as a maintenance cart. Utility tools such as hedge trimmers can be run off the cart, or simply be charged from the cart.
This paper evaluates the performance of two solar arrays located in Palm City, Florida. The main ... more This paper evaluates the performance of two solar arrays located in Palm City, Florida. The main goal of this study is to compare the annual performance of a solar array with hybrid Smart-Silicon Thin-Film panels and a conventional solar array. The system was designed and installed for two photovoltaic arrays with the same number of panels that started operation in December 2014. First, an overview of the entire system is presented followed by the description of system architecture design. A statistical comparison is done for system daily and monthly power production. Also, the annual energy output of hybrid and conventional units is extracted and analyzed. At the end, annual power production of each array and the amount of system CO2 emission reduction are calculated. It is concluded from final results that the hybrid solar system has better efficiency in wintertime and performs marginally better than the one with regular solar panels. In order to improve the system efficiency, more precise researches are required in terms of positioning and temperature sensitivity.
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Papers by Amir Abtahi