Passivity-based control for methane steam reforming in nuclear cogeneration systems

This paper presents a passivity-based control design for methane steam reforming reactors, focusing on ensuring system stability and improving dynamic performance. A deviation-based dynamic model is developed for control design, incorporating thermodynamic properties to achieve energy-efficient regulation. The proposed passivity-based control framework leverages entropy production metrics and a carefully constructed storage function to assess and ensure the system's passivity. The control design guarantees the negative definiteness of the rate of change of the storage function along the closed-loop system dynamics, and is applied to a hydrogen production plant in a nuclear cogeneration system to verify the control design. Simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of the PBC approach in maintaining reformer stability and enhancing operational efficiency under varying disturbances.