Sustainable energy delivery system, controller and method

Abstract

An integrated low-carbon energy system includes: a controller configured to control the amount of H2 gas added to a pipeline delivery system, wherein the pipeline delivery system delivers a mixture of gaseous fossil fuel and H2 gas, wherein the H2 gas is a minority component by volume; an H2-compatible fuel cell that converts the mixed gas into electrical energy; and a data interface that receives an H2 allocation request signal on behalf of a facility that receives the electrical energy generated by the H2-compatible fuel cell, wherein, in response to the H2 allocation request signal, the controller is configured to control a change in the rate of addition of H2 from a first level to a second level, wherein the second level corresponds to the level requested in the request signal.

Description

[0001] Related application data

[0002] This application claims all benefits of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63 / 285,713, entitled “Integrated Low-Carbon Energy Systems, Methods, and Computer Program Products,” filed on December 3, 2021. The disclosure of the above-mentioned provisional patent application is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. Technical Field

[0003] The present disclosure relates to sustainable energy, and more particularly to techniques for dispensing fuel mixtures that reflect a user-requested blend, and for obtaining electrical current through chemical reactions of these mixtures, wherein a majority of the components of the fuel mixture in the chemical reactions produce greenhouse gases, and a minority of the components do not produce greenhouse gases. The techniques described herein also include sequestering greenhouse gases produced by chemical reactions of atmospheric emissions. Background Art

[0004] Given the overwhelming evidence of climate change, there is deep concern about the continued use of fossil fuels and other sources of greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, significant financial, engineering, and product development resources have been invested in new energy conversion technologies, including fuel cells that convert energy-carrying fluids such as methane (CH4) gas and molecular hydrogen (H2) gas into usable electrical current. While significant success has been achieved in developing such fuel cells, work is still ongoing on new designs for cleaner and more environmentally friendly electrical current generation.

[0005] As the inventors have recognized, one of the barriers to widespread use of H2 is to deliver it directly to customers. One method currently used is to transport liquid hydrogen by land transportation. However, this transmission is not sufficient to achieve large-scale H2 energy conversion. An alternative technology is described in "Blending Hydrogen into Natural Gas Pipeline Networks: A Review of Critical Issues" published by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in March 2013. Because it is possible to transport hydrogen through natural gas pipelines, new technologies are being developed to utilize this energy in a broader sustainable energy system.

[0006] The "background technology" description provided herein is intended to generally present the context of the present disclosure. The work of the presently designated inventors (to the extent that it is described in the background technology section) and aspects of the specification that may not be prior art at the time of filing are not admitted, either explicitly or implicitly, as prior art against the present invention. Summary of the invention

[0007] According to aspects of the subject matter disclosed herein, an integrated low-carbon energy system includes: a controller configured to control an amount of H2 gas added to a pipeline delivery system that delivers a mixture of gaseous fossil fuel and H2 gas, wherein the H2 gas is a minority component by volume; an H2-compatible fuel cell that converts the mixed gas into electrical energy; and a data interface that receives an H2 allocation request signal on behalf of a facility that receives electrical energy generated by the H2-compatible fuel cell, wherein, in response to the H2 allocation request signal, the controller is configured to control a change in the rate of addition of H2 from a first level to a second level, wherein the second level reflects the level requested in the request signal. The actual amount of H2 added to the fossil fuel stream may not directly correspond to the amount requested by a single end user, but the controller will aggregate the fossil fuel to H2 ratios of the different requests.

[0008] The foregoing summary is for general introduction only and is not intended to limit the scope of the following claims.The embodiments described herein and further advantages thereof may be best understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0009] Figure 1 is an illustration of an exemplary overview of a sustainable energy system in accordance with one or more aspects of the subject matter disclosed herein.

[0010] Figure 2 is an exemplary workflow diagram for operating a sustainable energy system according to one or more aspects of the subject matter disclosed herein.

[0011] Figure 3 is an illustration of an exemplary sustainable energy system according to one or more aspects of the subject matter disclosed herein.

[0012] Figure 4 is an illustration of an exemplary sustainable energy system according to one or more aspects of the subject matter disclosed herein.

[0013] Figure 5A A first graphical user interface (GUI) of a remote device that selectively requests H2 power generation and tracks H2-based power generation for a facility that uses power generated by the sustainable energy system described herein is shown.

[0014] Figure 5B is an illustration of a second GUI that provides a computer-based H2 ordering tool and a CO2 suppression visualization tool.

[0015] Figure 6 is an illustration of exemplary data contained in a database stored in computer memory that correlates H2 source power that a remote device should use and tracks actual usage and the difference between actual usage and what should be used.

[0016] Figure 7 is an illustration of exemplary data maintained in a database stored in computer memory, including hourly requirements of end-user sites.

[0017] Figure 8 is a graphical representation of exemplary data maintained in a database stored in a computer memory that is associated with hourly electricity usage provided by different electricity supply sources.

[0018] Fig. 9 is a sequence diagram showing communication signals between a remote device and a server as part of a gas flow and conditioning process that controls the amount of H2 gas added to a gas supply pipeline for a facility associated with the remote device.

[0019] Fig.10 It is a flowchart of the process of adjusting the amount of H2 gas corresponding to the account managed by the remote device.

[0020] Fig.11 A computer-implemented predictive model comprising a data extraction network and a data analysis network is shown that can predict expected electricity demand and H2 gas adjustments that should be made based on historical behavior data.

[0021] Fig.12 It is the data extraction network of the forecasting model, which is used to extract data to adjust the H2 level according to the forecasting requirements.

[0022] Fig.13 It is the data analysis network of the forecasting model, which is used to analyze the data to adjust the H2 level according to the forecast demand.

[0023] Fig.14 is a hardware block diagram of a server according to one or more exemplary aspects of the subject matter disclosed herein. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0024] The concept of the present invention can be described in detail by certain embodiments thereof, which are described in detail herein with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein the same reference numerals always indicate the same features. It should be understood that when the term "invention" is used herein, it is intended to represent the inventive concept implied by the following embodiments, rather than just the embodiments themselves. In addition, the term "invention" should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of any claim set forth herein. It should also be understood that the general concept of the invention is not limited to the following illustrative embodiments, and the following should be read in this light.

[0025] Furthermore, the word “exemplary” is used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any structure, process, design, technique, etc., embodiment designated herein as exemplary is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other such embodiments.

[0026] The drawings described herein include schematic block diagrams showing various interoperating functional modules. These diagrams are not intended to be used as electrical or fluid schematics, and the interconnections shown are intended to describe various interactions between signals and / or fluid flows, multiple functional components and / or processes, and are not necessarily direct electrical or fluid connections between these components. In addition, the functions shown and described by separate components do not need to be distributed as shown, and the discrete blocks in the figures are not necessarily used to depict discrete electrical or fluid transport components.

[0027] The technology described herein is directed to sustainable energy technology that can reduce the amount of greenhouse gas (GHG) byproducts produced when electric current is generated, and can reduce the amount of greenhouse gas (still a byproduct when electric current is generated) emissions discharged into the atmosphere. By reading this disclosure and understanding the concepts disclosed herein, ordinary technicians will recognize that other sustainable energy environments can also apply the inventive concept. The scope of this disclosure is intended to cover all such alternative embodiments.

[0028] Figure 1 is a schematic block diagram of an exemplary sustainable energy system 100 that may embody the present invention. As used herein, "sustainable energy" refers to the use of energy resources in a manner that meets present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, taking into account environmental impacts such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

[0029] In general, the sustainable energy system 100 can be considered to include: a fluid distribution subsystem (FDS) 105, which distributes a controllable mixed energy-carrying fluid to a sustainable energy customer at the terminal; and an information and end-user control subsystem (IECS) 109, through which the end customer can customize or otherwise request the mixing ratio of the energy-carrying fluid. As used herein, the term "energy carrying fluid" (energy carrying fluid(s), ECF) refers to a fluid with potential chemical energy, such as a gas used in the exemplary embodiment described herein, which chemical energy can be converted into another form of energy, such as electrical energy in the embodiment described herein. In addition, according to the present disclosure, the distribution and delivery pipelines can transport liquid, gaseous and / or partially liquid and partially gaseous fluids. However, in the chemical / electrical conversion process, the conversion is performed when the energy-carrying fluid (also referred to as a mixed fuel fluid herein) is in a gaseous state, so the term "gas" is generally used to refer to fuel fluids (e.g., carbon-based fuels, such as methane (CH4) and natural gas, and hydrogen (H2)).

[0030] FDS 105 may include a source of a first ECF (ECF 1) 2 and a source of a second ECF (ECF 2) 4 connected to a public pipeline infrastructure 5 through a distribution center 110. Pipeline infrastructure 5 may be part of an ECF delivery system operated as a regulated utility, such as a natural gas delivery system common in urban / suburban / rural areas in the United States and elsewhere. Figure 1 In an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the pipeline infrastructure 5 (also referred to as a "transport pipeline" that receives the mixed fuel fluid from the controllable valve 112 and provides the mixed fuel fluid to the mixed gas fuel cells 140x and 140y) may include separate branches (see Figure 1 The upper branch pipe connected to the mixed gas fuel cell 140x and the lower branch pipe connected to the mixed gas fuel cell 140y are connected to the branches, respectively, and the branches are connected to various chemical-electric converters, which are representatively shown as chemical-electric converters 140x and 140y. These chemical-electric converters are constructed or otherwise configured to convert chemical energy in ECF 2, ECF 4 and / or a mixture thereof into electrical energy, which can be transmitted through electrical conductors (see, for example Figure 1 The chemical-to-electrical converters 140x and 140y (hereinafter referred to as mixed gas fuel cells or simply fuel cells 140x and 140y) may accept a mixture of ECFs, such as methane (CH4, such as ECF 1) and molecular hydrogen (H2, such as ECF 2), but may use only H2 in the redox process for generating electrical current. The methane delivered to the fuel cells 140x and 140y may first be converted to H2 and introduced into the redox process, where H2 is delivered as a minority component of the mixture. As described above, embodiments of the present invention may utilize a pipeline infrastructure 5 whose design and use are continuously focused on delivering natural gas (primarily CH4) to utility companies, residences, and businesses. The fuel cells 140x and 140y connected to the pipeline infrastructure 5 have ready access to a supply of CH4, and the end user associated with the fuel cells 140x and 140y can have some influence on the proportion of H2 added to the mixture before the mixture is delivered to the fuel cells 140x and 140y. In addition, the end user, or more specifically the end user's terminal operating in response to user input, can request a certain amount of H2 in an account transaction of the energy demanding entity. Figure 1 As shown, user terminals 150x and 150y, or more specifically software ("application") executed on processing resources (not shown) of user terminals 150x and 150y, chemical-electric converters 140x and 140y, and / or loads connected thereto (e.g., electrical service equipment for a particular residence) may be associated with customer account 132. Figure 1 As shown, such customer accounts 132 stored in the storage circuit 130 may be a database associated with appropriate energy demand entities that enjoy the benefits of the sustainable energy system 100 (such as credits and rewards discussed below). The customer account 132 may include the identity of the customer (energy demand entity) and its user profile, the fuel cell model operated by the customer and its geographical location, and the power usage commitment / contract for generating H2, etc. The use tracking process 124 can monitor and record the ECF mixing orders provided by the controllers 152x and 152y on each user terminal 150x and 150y and the ECF mixing delivery provided by the distribution controller 110, etc. When the order and delivery are traded through the sustainable energy system 100, the use tracking process 124 will record the transaction data in the appropriate customer account 132. In addition, the customer account 132 may have a reward structure 8 to deposit rewards, such as CO2 compensation credits, into the customer account 132. During regular billing intervals, the operator of the sustainable energy system 100 can provide account information such as orders, delivery, and commitment status to the energy demand entity associated with the customer account 132.

[0031] In certain embodiments, the chemical-electric converters 140x and 140y may implement multiple chemical processes: one chemical process may reform CH4 into H2 while producing a byproduct GHG, such as CO2, while another chemical process (e.g., a redox process) may convert H2 into electrical energy while producing a non-GHG byproduct, such as water. Therefore, for a fixed volume of an energy-carrying fluid (i.e., a "mixed fuel fluid") containing a CH4 component and an H2 component, an incremental increase in the H2 component corresponds to an incremental decrease in the CH4 component. Therefore, less byproduct CO2 is produced when reforming CH4, and the chemical-electric converters 140x and 140y may operate in a more environmentally sustainable manner while producing substantially the same electricity. However, the pipeline infrastructure 5 and the fuel cells 140x and 140y may have their own limits on the amount of H2 that each component can withstand. Embodiments of the present disclosure may provide a mechanism by which the fuel mixture requested by an energy demand entity (e.g., a load associated with an end user's terminal) is kept within the specifications of system components (e.g., fuel cells 140x and 140y) and conventional components (e.g., pipeline infrastructure 5).

[0032] like Figure 1As shown, the sustainable energy system 100 may include a distribution controller 110, which can be accessed by user terminals 150x and 150y via a communication network 10. The distribution controller 110 can be configured to provide external control over the component quantities of the ECF mixture, as described in more detail below. To this end, the distribution controller 110 can include a valve system 112, which is a controllable valve that controllably opens / closes the supply lines of ECF 1 and ECF 2 based on valve control commands issued by a control circuit that is part of the distribution controller 110. The valve system 112 is in fluid communication with the pipeline infrastructure 5, the source 3 of ECF 1, and the source 4 of ECF 2. The processing circuit (or "control circuit") is in Figure 1 Not shown separately, but can be used Fig.14 The circuit and about Fig.14 The related programmable circuits described above are implemented, within the distribution controller 110, an electrical signal (e.g., a valve control command) can be applied to the valve actuator within the valve system 112 to produce a mixture of ECF 1 and ECF 2 based on the request summary made by the end-user terminals serving the energy demand entities operating the customer loads 145x and 145y. In implementing these embodiments, a variety of existing technologies for mixing ECFs and distributing the mixture to different locations can be used without departing from the spirit and intended scope thereof. Therefore, this document only provides implementation details where there are differences between the features of the embodiments of the present disclosure and the features in current fluid transportation and control practices. In certain embodiments, the valve system 112 may include an ECF flow valve installed as part of a conventional natural gas distribution system, and an ECF flow valve configured to introduce a small amount of energy-carrying fluid to form an ECF mixture in the pipeline infrastructure 5. It will be appreciated that in implementing the present embodiment, the valve system 112 may be operated to provide a degree of user control (i.e., recognizing that it is not a single user's request that may specifically control the valve system 112, but rather, it may provide a component of an aggregate of requests from multiple end-user terminals that are reflected in the valve control command), controlling the amount of a minority component of the ECF mixture (e.g., H2), but may also be operated within certain limitations, such as pressure control in the pipeline infrastructure 5, which are within the skill of a technician skilled in fluid distribution.

[0033] IECS109 can be installed on FDS105 and cooperate with it to deliver ECF mixture according to the order or request of the end-user energy demand entity. To this end, IECS109 can include various user terminals, representatively illustrated as user terminals 150x and 150y, which are connected to the server 15 through the communication network 10. The server 15 can provide centralized computer processing resources for the sustainable energy system 100, and can communicate with other components using appropriate signaling / message interfaces and protocols consistent with the communication network 10. The sustainable energy services of the sustainable energy system 100 provided by the server 15 will be described in more detail below, but for the purpose of the current discussion, it should be noted that such services can be centrally provided to user terminals 150x and 150y according to appropriate requests. In the case where the computing function of the server 15 is implemented in the distribution controller 110, the user terminals 150x and 150y communicate with the distribution controller 110 via the network 10. In addition, it should be understood that the server 15 is equipped with sufficient processors, memory and input / output circuits to meet these requests and perform other processing functions described herein. In addition, it should be understood that the server 15 may be a component of a larger data processing platform including cloud-based and distributed systems. The components and functional description of the server 15 are also provided by Fig.14 and Fig.14 As used herein, a "circuit" may be implemented as a computer configured by software to perform a specified function. Therefore, a server or a controller are two examples of a "circuit" that can be configured by software.

[0034] Each user terminal 150x and 150y may be provided with a set of user controls that may be implemented in onboard software (e.g., an application) and executed on the processing resources of the user terminal 150x and 150y. Alternatively, the user terminals 150x and 150y may interact with the server 15 and / or the distribution controller 110 via web pages provided to the user terminals 150x and 150y. Figure 5A and Figure 5Bis an example embodiment of an APP or web page as part of the user interface of the user terminals 150x and 150y. Various such controls will be exemplified below, but for the purposes of this discussion, it should be noted that at least one control on each user terminal 150x and 150y (representatively shown as controls 152x and 152y) may be constructed or otherwise configured to allow a user to define and request an ECF mixture, such as CH4 and H2, through a user interface. In certain embodiments, the mixture may be defined by setting the amount of H2 on controls 152x and 152y, controls 152x and 152y are hereinafter referred to as mixture controls 152x and 152y, and the final ECF mixture may be determined based on volume percentages, for example, the amount of H2 is selected on the user terminals 150x and 150y, and the amount of H2 is then calculated as a percentage of the total volume of ECF in the mixture, and the remaining percentage corresponds to the volume of CH4 in the mixture. However, it should be understood that embodiments of the present invention may enable reporting of components in the ECF mixture that are not controlled by the sustainable energy system 100, such as through suitable sensor technology.

[0035] like Figure 1 As shown, the server 15 may include a processor circuit 120 and a memory circuit 130, through which sustainable energy services are provided and executed. The processes that can be executed by the processor circuit 120 include: a distribution control process 122, through which a distribution controller can be operated; a usage tracking process 124, through which user activities are monitored and recorded, including ECF mixtures ordered by end-user energy demand entities through the sustainable energy system 100; and a prediction model process 126, through which future ECF mixture requirements can be estimated based on system activities and behavioral information collected from such activities and other historical and state data. In some embodiments, the prediction model process 126 can implement artificial intelligence, such as machine learning, an example of which will be described below.

[0036] Exemplary memory circuitry 130 (e.g., a non-transitory computer-readable storage device) may be constructed or otherwise configured to store customer account data 132 (which may include user profiles, end-user device specifications, billing / credit information, etc.), model data 134 corresponding to the predictive model process 126, and executable code 136 (which may include code for processes 122, 124, 126, operations and / or file systems, processes that may support data tracking and analysis, etc.).

[0037] As described above, fuel cells 140x and 140y can reform CH4 into H2 and produce a GHG byproduct, CO2. While aspects of the present disclosure are directed to reducing CO2 levels through prudent specification of ECF mixtures by end-user energy demand entities, other aspects may be directed to sequestering or otherwise mitigating residual levels of CO2 as a byproduct in the presence of small amounts of CH4 in the mixture. Examples of such CO2 amelioration techniques are described below, but for ease of discussion, these techniques are described in detail below. Figure 1 6 in the form of byproduct GHG summary 6. In this way, end-user energy demand entities may benefit from programs that reward improvements / elimination of greenhouse gas emissions, such as carbon credits in the United States, which can be traded between entities based on the greenhouse gas needs / surpluses generated by these entities. These programs, and particularly the benefits therein, may be encoded in executable program code for the exemplary sustainable energy system 100 to automatically or with minimal user-machine interaction calculate the credits (e.g., carbon credits) and other benefits allowed and / or used, which are in Figure 1 The reward structure in 8 is centrally represented.

[0038] The sustainable energy system 100 may correspond to one or more energy systems that are communicatively connected to the user terminals 150x and 150y and the sustainable energy server 15 via a network 10 (e.g., the Internet). The sustainable energy system 100 may be, for example, a natural gas distribution system integrated with a hydrogen production plant at a source 4 of the ECF 2. The sustainable energy system 100 may include a hydrogen production plant (or a source of H2 provided by a pipeline, or a local source) that includes one or more automatic control valves of a valve system 112 that may be configured to control the amount of H2 introduced into the natural gas distribution system in response to various inputs from the system (e.g., inputs received from a user using a remote device (or a mobile processor, such as a smartphone, laptop, tablet, or other device that provides a display, user interface, and transceiver functionality, wireless and / or wired digital transceiver communication functionality)).

[0039] The sustainable energy server 15 may represent one or more servers that are communicatively connected to the user terminals 140x and 140y via the communication network 10. The sustainable energy server 15 may also represent a dedicated server group, cloud-based processing, and / or a serverless computing system corresponding to a virtualized hardware resource set. Again, the allocation controller 110 may be separate from or part of the computer resources of the server 15.

[0040] The valve system 112 may be located at a location where the H2 pipeline is connected to the natural gas distribution system pipeline. In this article, "pipeline" refers to the H2 source, whether the source is stored / produced locally and provided to the valve system through accessories compatible with the valve system 112, or the H2 is transported from a distant source through a pipeline and then installed in the valve system 112. For example, the automatic control valve in the valve system 112 can be equipped with an actuator that can be controlled by a temperature sensor or a flow sensor. The valve can be controlled by an electrical, hydraulic or pneumatic signal from the sensor. According to the valve control command, the valve can be set to open, closed, or any state in between to accurately control the flow. The valve is located at the distribution branch of the pipeline network so that the H2 gas added to a facility is not too far upstream of the gas supplied to the fuel cells 140x and 140y, so that only a small part of the added H2 gas is converted into electrical energy. In one embodiment, one or more control valves of the valve system 112 may be provided on a one-to-one basis at each fuel cell 140x and 140y, or in another embodiment, one or more control valves of the valve system 112 may be provided upstream to provide a source of H2 gas to an alley facility, street facility, community facility, or city facility. Some facilities may be organized in a cooperative relationship (co-op) to share electricity from a source of H2 and credits associated therewith. Furthermore, the valves need not be located near the physical location where the H2 is produced, but the valves may need to be connected to a distribution pipeline (or other source) that delivers the H2 gas to the valve system 112.

[0041] Chemical-to-electric converters 140x and 140y may be IMPERIUM TM 1500W-NG-48POX reforming solid oxide fuel cell system, or the fuel cells described in U.S. Patent 10,727,513, U.S. Patent 7,374,835, and / or U.S. Patent 9,627,700, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

[0042] User terminals 140x and 140y can represent one or more remote devices that are communicatively connected to the sustainable energy server 15 via the communication network 10. User terminals 140x and 140y can be desktop computers or workstations, laptops, smart phones, mobile phones, tablet computers, PDAs, etc. User terminals 140x and 140y can be operated by users to monitor and interact with the sustainable energy system 100. For example, users can use user terminals 140x / 140y to select the hydrogen they prefer to use in the natural gas distribution system, as further described herein. In one embodiment, user terminals 140x and 140y interact with the sustainable energy system 100 through software applications (e.g., mobile applications or "apps", web applications, etc.), as further described herein.

[0043] The communication network 10 may be a public network, such as the Internet, or a private network, such as a LAN or WAN network, or any combination thereof, and may also include a PSTN or ISDN subnet. The network 10 may also be wired, such as an Ethernet network, or may be wireless, such as a cellular network including EDGE, 3G, 4G and 5G wireless cellular systems. The wireless network may also be Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or any other known form of wireless communication.

[0044] Figure 2 is a flow chart of an exemplary sustainable energy process 200 that may embody the present invention. The sustainable energy process 200 may be Figure 1 The sustainable energy system 100 is shown.

[0045] In S205, the sustainable energy server 15 may receive an input signal from an end user device (e.g., user terminal 150x / 150y), or receive the input signal through another server or data processing platform that may act as an intermediary. For example, the end user may interact with the user terminal 150x / 150y to adjust the amount of H2 gas in the ECF mixture delivered to the natural gas distribution system. In this example, it is assumed that the user terminal 150x / 150y and the sustainable energy server 15 communicate to transmit the input signal through the communication network 10.

[0046] In S210, the sustainable energy server 15 may determine the amount of H2 gas to be added to the natural gas distribution system based on the user input (aggregate amount) received in S205. For example, the system controller 115 may recognize (e.g., through data provided by the manufacturer) that the fuel cell 140x / 140y serving the end-user energy demand entity associated with the user terminal 150x / 150y is limited in the percentage of H2 gas contained in the delivered ECF mixture (e.g., the fuel cell 140x / 140y allocates a maximum of 40% H2 gas in the ECF mixture, while approximately 60% is CH4). In this case, the amount of H2 gas requested from the user terminal 140x / 140y is greater than the ability of any system component in the sustainable energy system 100 to handle that amount, and the request may be rejected or modified by the sustainable energy server 15 (e.g., by limiting the amount to the maximum amount allowed by any part of the system (e.g., the mixed gas fuel cell 140x / 140y)). In some embodiments, the limits of the hybrid gas fuel cells 140x and 140y determine the H2 processing capacity of the sustainable energy system 100, but some embodiments may define H2 limits for reasons other than component functionality and reliability or system integrity. In such cases, the sustainable energy server 15 may modify or reject excessive H2 orders based on these other limits in a manner similar to modifying or rejecting H2 orders that exceed the system component capacity.

[0047] In S215, the server 15 determines whether the amount of H2 gas to be added to the natural gas distribution system is greater than a predetermined amount. For example, the predetermined amount may be a threshold amount of H2 that the fuel cell 140x / 140y cannot sustain (e.g., the 40% threshold discussed above). In response to the determination in S215 that the ordered amount of H2 gas to be added to the ECF mixture delivered to the fuel cell 140x / 140y is greater than the predetermined amount, the process 200 may transition to S220, whereby the server 15 may modify the request by adjusting the amount of H2 gas to be added to the natural gas distribution system to the amount of H2 that the fuel cell 140x / 140y can support. In some embodiments, the server 15 may send a message back to the user terminal 140x / 140y notifying the energy demand entity that its request is being modified. This modification adjustment may occur without user intervention, or the server 15 may send a message to the user terminal 140x / 140y to request a reduction in the selected amount of H2, to obtain power from another source, etc. In this example, the reduction in H2 is proportionally distributed to the requesting user.

[0048] When it is determined in S215 that the amount of H2 gas to be added to the ECF mixture is less than or equal to the predetermined amount, the process 200 may transition to S225, by which the server 15 (more specifically, the distribution control process 122) operates one or more valves in the valve system 112 of the distribution controller 110 to adjust the amount of H2 gas added to the pipeline of the natural gas distribution system to the amount requested by the end-user energy demand entity. If the input received in S205 indicates that the user terminal 140x / 140y has increased the amount of H2 gas added to its natural gas distribution system, the distribution controller 110 may activate the valve system 112 to add more H2 gas to the natural gas distribution system. Similarly, if the input received in S205 indicates that the user terminal 140x / 140y has chosen to reduce the amount of H2 gas in the ECF mixture of its natural gas distribution system, the distribution controller 110 may activate the valve system 112 to reduce the amount of H2 added to the natural gas distribution system.

[0049] In S230, the server 15 may give rewards or credits (e.g., carbon credits) to the end-user energy demand entity of the user terminal 140x / 140y for how much H2 natural gas is added to its natural gas distribution system based on the activity tracking implemented by the usage tracking process 124. The credits or rewards may be in the form of one or more of government tax credits, carbon credits, monetary rewards, energy cost rebates, etc., and may be implemented in hardware and software as shown in the reward structure 5 above.

[0050] Figure 3 is a diagram of an exemplary sustainable energy system 300 that may embody embodiments of the present disclosure. Sustainable energy system 300 may be similar in function to sustainable energy system 100, with both exemplary systems operating in a similar sustainable energy mode (reducing greenhouse gas production and reducing emissions of remaining greenhouse gas production to the atmosphere). Sustainable energy system 300 may include Figure 1The pipeline infrastructure 5 of the natural gas distribution system 305 may include a first natural gas pipeline 310a and a second natural gas pipeline 310b, but it should be understood that there may be many natural gas pipelines in the natural gas distribution system 305, so the sustainable energy system 300 may have many natural gas pipelines. The second natural gas pipeline 310b may be connected to a hydrogen production plant 312, which may reform natural gas (e.g., CH4) into H2 and CO2. The H2 pipeline 335 is connected to the first natural gas pipeline 310a, and a meter 350 may be configured to determine how much H2 is added to the natural gas distribution system 305, as further described herein. The natural gas and H2 mixture flows through the mixing pipeline 330 to one or more fuel cells (e.g., fuel cell 315a, fuel cell 315b) or directly to a structure (e.g., a house, an office building, etc.) that uses natural gas. The fuel cells 315a, 315b may convert the mixture of natural gas and H2 into electricity that can be provided to users (e.g., 320a and 320b, respectively). As described above, fuel cells 315a and 315b may first reform natural gas into H2 and then perform a redox process on the ordered and reformed H2 in the fuel cell.

[0051] Can be based on Figure 1 The amount of H2 in the mixing pipeline 330 is adjusted by user input of the smartphones 325a and / or 325b of the user terminals 150x and 150y in the mixing pipeline 330. In one example, the smartphones 325a, 325b can be connected to a server (e.g., the sustainable energy server 15) through a network (e.g., the network 10), and the sustainable energy server 15 can communicate with the automatic control valve of the valve system 112 to control the amount of H2 added to the natural gas distribution system 305. In one aspect, the sustainable energy server 15 can receive a measurement of the amount of H2 added to the first natural gas pipeline 310a from the meter 350 and send an instruction to control the automatic control valve 112 through the distribution controller 110, such as Figure 1 shown.

[0052] like Figure 3 As shown, CO 2 from the reforming process of the hydrogen production plant 312 may be transferred to a CO 2 storage system 345 via a CO 2 pipeline 340 .

[0053] In one aspect, each fuel cell customer (e.g., an end-user energy demand entity associated with fuel cell 315a or 315b) can select their preferred hydrogen usage on, for example, a mobile phone application or a web application. The user can select from 0% to 100% hydrogen. In one aspect, the software application can also use information specific to the electricity supply in the customer's area to estimate the customer's total monthly hydrogen usage, additional costs, and GHG / CO2 emissions reductions, and display this information to the customer before making a selection.

[0054] Additionally, a customer's hydrogen usage selection can be input into a central server (e.g., sustainable energy server 15) that aggregates the selections of all customers on the natural gas distribution system. In one aspect, the amount of H2 added to the natural gas distribution system fluctuates in real time. Alternatively, the amount of H2 added to the natural gas distribution system can take effect at a predetermined time. For example, a customer can change their H2 selection once a month and / or have all changes take effect at the beginning of the next month.

[0055] The sustainable energy server 15 may be constructed or otherwise configured to calculate the total amount of hydrogen required to meet the needs of one or more customers and compare the required amount with the actual amount of hydrogen delivered to the system. If more hydrogen is needed, the sustainable energy server 15 may send instructions (e.g., to the distribution controller 110) to open one or more control valves (e.g., valve system 112) accordingly. Similarly, if an excess of H2 is delivered, the sustainable energy server 15 may send instructions to the distribution controller 110 to close the automatic control valve 112 by a corresponding amount.

[0056] The meter 350 at the hydrogen injection point (e.g., where the H2 pipeline 335 connects to the first natural gas pipeline 310a) can transmit the amount of hydrogen being delivered to the sustainable energy server 15. The sustainable energy server 15 can send appropriate instructions to the distribution controller 110 to control the valves of the valve system 112 to open or close accordingly.

[0057] The amount of hydrogen injected into the natural gas distribution system is typically small relative to the total throughput (for example, if there are 500 fuel cell customers representing a local distribution company (LDC) system hydrogen demand of approximately 230,000 standard cubic feet per day (Mcfd) and the natural gas throughput is 300,000 Mcfd, the total amount of hydrogen injected into the system would be less than 0.1% of the total system throughput). While homeowners without fuel cells may still have trace amounts of hydrogen in their natural gas supply, they may be charged for a 100% natural gas supply. Additionally, each fuel cell customer may only receive trace amounts of hydrogen for their fuel cell, but they are billed for the amount of hydrogen ordered through the sustainable energy system 300.

[0058] Figure 4 An exemplary sustainable energy system 400 including a jet fuel production plant 405 is shown in accordance with one or more aspects of the present invention. Figure 4 Many components of a sustainable energy system 400 Figure 3 The sustainable energy system 300 is identical, so the description of overlapping features is omitted for brevity.

[0059] Jet fuel production plant 405 may receive natural gas from third natural gas pipeline 410. Jet fuel production plant 405 may separate CO2 from the process of manufacturing aviation fuel and transfer the CO2 to a CO2 storage system (e.g., CO2 storage system 345) via CO2 pipeline 440. The sustainably produced aviation fuel may be transferred from jet fuel production plant 410 to storage facility 420 via aviation fuel pipeline 415. Then, for example, aircraft of airline 425 may use the sustainably produced aviation fuel. Since airline 425 uses sustainably produced aviation fuel, airline 425 may offer passenger 430 the option to purchase a ticket that takes the sustainable aviation fuel into account when purchasing the ticket, similar to how a user may choose to add more H2 to their natural gas distribution system.

[0060] Figure 5A A display 500 is shown, which shows a graphical user interface (GUI) presented on the user terminal 140x / 140y. The GUI includes a first area 501, which displays the storage power level of the storage resources of the facilities managed by the user terminal 140x / 140y. Electricity can be stored in various batteries, such as PWRCELL provided by GENERAC or POWERWALL provided by TESLA. The facilities managed by the user terminal 140x / 140y may not have obvious energy storage capabilities. In this case, electricity is pulled from the power grid and / or produced on behalf of the power grid from the H2 source electricity described herein and provided on demand. The displayed power level shows the current power level of all available batteries (or other power storage devices), ranging from 0% (empty) to 100% (maximum storage capacity). In addition, the first area 501 includes a display indication of the expected maximum storage power over a period of time (e.g., hourly, daily, weekly, monthly). Similarly, the first area 501 displays the expected minimum storage power for the same time period. The time period may be user selectable, and the expected maximum and minimum levels may be based on running averages accumulated over time, and / or based on the values ​​from the reference below. Figure 11-13 Expected levels of input to the forecasting model in question. The first area 501 may provide a graphical dashboard of the available storage power at the facility managed by the user terminal 140x / 140y and compare it to how that power level may change over a specified time period.

[0061] Figure 5A The second region 505 in the diagram provides a visual indication of the current usage of H2 source power provided by the H2 production plant 110 and converted to electricity by the facility managed by the user terminal 140x / 140y. The second region also provides an indication of the expected H2 source power delivery over a specified period of time in the future, as well as any recommended adjustments (upward or downward). The adjustment unit can refer to the current H2 usage level, an increase of 25% can be represented as 0.25X, and a decrease of 50% can be represented as -0.5X.

[0062] In some cases, the user terminal 140x / 140y may request an adjustment in the level of H2 gas provided to the fuel cell 140x / 140y on its behalf, because the facility managed by the user terminal 140x / 140y may be obligated to use a certain amount of H2 source energy over a period of time. Therefore, the user terminal 140x / 140y (or the sustainable energy server 15 on behalf of the user terminal 140x / 140y) can track the amount of H2 source electricity attributed to it so as to reliably meet its obligations.

[0063] The third area 503 of the display 500 can provide a visual indication of the current obligations of the facility managed by the user terminal 140x / 140y, wherein the facility can be a personal residence, a group of houses, a commercial facility, or a mixed residential / commercial facility. An example of a commercial facility may be a charging area for an electric vehicle. The expected delivery level shown in the figure is about 2.5X, which indicates that it is planned to deliver more and more H2 to the facilities managed by the user terminal 140x / 140y in the short term. However, the amount of H2 gas delivered may exceed or fall short of expectations, so the prediction model described below may suggest adjustments to the H2 gas distribution plan for the facilities managed by the user terminal 140x / 140y. The exemplary units shown on the third area 503 can be from 0X to 4X, where 0X represents a request to shut down the H2 gas flow, and 4X represents 4 times the current level. Different scales can be used, which are not limited to 0X to 4X, but the range can reach the maximum H2 capacity of the fuel cell 120.

[0064] Figure 5B A fourth region 507 and a fifth region 509 of a GUI implemented on the display 500 are shown, which may be displayed in conjunction with Figure 5AThe fourth region 507 may be a user interface that allows a user or an automated process to adjust up or down in real time in 0.25X increments using a trained prediction model. The selection may be made manually via a touch panel or selection device (e.g., a computer mouse), or may be made autonomously using a trained artificial intelligence (AI) model for H2 gas adjustment, such as Figures 11 to 13 The equipment and procedures described in are shown.

[0065] A fifth area 509 of the display 500 may provide a dashboard panel including a user-driven slider 511. As the user slides the slider 511 up and down (as indicated by the double arrow 517), the graphic of the "percentage of H2 requests relative to demand" changes with the position of the slider 511. Thus, if the slider 511 is moved to the top of the display bar, the display bar will move its display level (indicated by the amount of shading indicating the level, or by a color or other type of indicator) to the top of the bar to indicate that the user wishes to view the effect of selecting H2 gas to meet all remaining on-demand electricity requirements (i.e., the user's selection of H2 gas to be met by the sustainable energy system 100 ( Figure 1 ) represents the electricity it produces). Optionally, the movement of the slider 511 can be related to the amount of adjustment that can be selected in the fourth area 507. Therefore, in response to the user sliding the slider 511 to, for example, 75% of the on-demand power requirement, this level can correspond to a 2X adjustment in the fourth display area 507, and the 2X adjustment can be displayed in the display area 507. If the user is satisfied with the level, the user only needs to press / select the "Enter" key, and the user terminal 140x / 140y will send an H2 "upgrade" request to the sustainable energy server 15, which in turn sends a request to the sustainable energy system 100 to increase the amount of H2 gas required for the fuel cell 140x / 140y to generate electricity by 2X.

[0066] The user's movement of the slider 511 can also provide a visual indication of the impact of the user's decision on CO2 emissions. The CO2 indicator bar 513 can display the carbon dioxide generated by meeting the unmet electricity demand of the facility managed by the user terminal 140x / 140y. When the user slides the slider 511 up and down, the CO2 indication level in the indicator bar 513 also dynamically decreases / increases as the slider 511 moves, as shown by the moving arrow 515. If the slider 517 increases to 100%, the indication on the CO2 indicator bar 513 will decrease to zero. On the other hand, when the user moves the slider 511 downward (i.e., requesting less H2 than is required to meet the on-demand electricity requirements of the facility managed by the user terminal 140x / 140y), the indication on the CO2 indicator bar 513 will increase by a certain amount to indicate the number of pounds of CO2 that will be generated to generate any unmet electricity demand that exists in the reduced H2 source electricity. In this way, the user can obtain a visual indication of the amount of carbon dioxide that will be generated based on his decision to select less than the full amount of H2 source electricity to meet his needs. This visual feedback can encourage users to pay attention to selecting a larger proportion of H2-sourced electricity rather than fossil fuel electricity to minimize the user's carbon footprint.

[0067] Regarding the rate at which the CO2 indication on the indicator bar 513 increases in response to the decrease of the slider 511, different geographic regions may have different CO2 regulations and restrictions. For example, the local power grid in a coal-rich area may be powered primarily by coal-fired production facilities, so its allowed carbon dioxide emissions will be higher than those in power generation areas such as hydroelectric power plants, nuclear power plants, wind turbines, etc. Similarly, the CO2 limit for natural gas power generation may be different from the geographical location of other power generation sources. There are many other factors (for example, equipment differences such as carbon capture technology) that affect the CO2 emission rate in a particular region and its related regulations. In some embodiments, such localized information can be obtained from the sustainable energy server 15. Therefore, the processor that presents the CO2 indicator bar 513 in the fifth area 509 can access this information, such as in a lookup table including an entry for the number of pounds of CO2 generated per kilowatt-hour of power generation. Therefore, if 1 kilowatt-hour of H2 source electricity is substituted for 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity generated locally by other means, the CO2 level in the indicator bar 513 will change according to the amount of CO2 generated per 1 kilowatt-hour of electricity locally.

[0068] Figure 6is an illustration of exemplary entries of a database, such as may be implemented in memory circuit 130, for a facility served by user terminal 140x / 140y. The facility may have contractual, tax, or certification obligations to avoid reliance on energy that produces more than a predetermined amount of greenhouse gases for the facility. Alternatively, the facility may have a self-regulatory goal to use a certain percentage of "clean" energy in its operations. In either case, user terminal 140x / 140y (or sustainable energy server 15 on its behalf) can track the amount of H2 used to meet its electricity needs, and likewise be able to determine the level of CO2 generated in producing electricity used to meet the facility's electricity needs. In a given week (although other time periods may also be used, such as daily, monthly, quarterly, etc.), the facility may be obligated to use a certain amount of electricity generated from H2 and therefore need to avoid using electricity generated from CO2 generating sources. Meeting obligations may be important for an agency to maintain certain tax credits, etc. However, the facility's actual use may be less than the obligated use. Figure 6 In the example of the first row of data in , the facility was obligated to use 100kWh of H2-sourced electricity, but only used 60kWh, a shortfall of 40kWh. In the second week, the week of November 8, the facility used 15kWh more than its obligation, for a cumulative shortfall of negative 25kWh for the month of November. Assuming the facility plans to meet its obligation, the system may allocate the remaining shortfall (in this case, 25 kWh) into a 25% increment of current usage next week. This is reflected in Figure 6 The “planned” amount of H2 source electricity produced in the week of November 15. If more is needed in the week of November 15 than the facility can provide, the extra amount may be allocated to the following week. The history of past usage and the alignment of actual to planned can be used to train AI prediction models, such as Figure 11-13 as discussed in the discussion.

[0069] Figure 7 An exemplary entry in the storage database is shown for expected power demand calculated on an hourly basis; however, longer or shorter time periods may be used, such as by the minute, hour, week, or month. Different facilities will have different power demands, some of which may be cyclical (e.g., diurnal heating / cooling in different seasons) and others that are less predictable, such as power consumption by electric vehicles. In addition, as opposed to having one fuel cell 140x / 140y per facility, a single fuel cell 140x / 140y may serve multiple facilities (e.g., several houses in an alley) in a co-op fashion. In these cases, demand levels may increase, and the temporal distribution of demand changes over a 24-hour cycle may also increase.

[0070] Figure 8is an illustration of a database entry that tracks the use of on-site energy storage (as described previously). In this case, the stored power comes from a single example power source. The facility may also have renewable energy sources, such as solar panels or wind turbines, which provide power during certain periods but not during other periods. On-demand power (and associated CO2 emissions) provided by the grid, as well as H2 source power, can be used for intermittent periods when other sources are not providing power. The total amount of power provided by the hour (in this example) can be recorded, as well as the amount of backup power stored in the batteries. This information can also be used for training Figure 11-13 The prediction model is further described in .

[0071] Fig. 9 901 is a sequence diagram illustrating an exemplary communication exchange between a server (e.g., sustainable energy server 15) and a remote device (e.g., user terminal 140x / 140y) that may embody the present disclosure. The remote device may attempt to log into the server in signal 901. The server may use signal 903 to challenge the remote device in order to verify the remote device. Signal 905 from the remote device may provide the server with usage and demand data (e.g., the data described above), as well as a request for an estimated amount of H2 source electricity available to the facility managed by the remote device. (Alternatively, the remote device may perform the estimate on its own without making a request to the server). The server may then send a signal 907 to the remote device with any H2 balance information (i.e., an increase or decrease relative to current usage). The remote device may then continue to monitor energy usage and demand in an onboard manner.

[0072] If the remote device receives an automatic request from a predictive model, or a request from a user of the device to change the H2 level manually input, the remote device may send a signal 909 to the server, which may acknowledge (ACK 911) the request. In the illustrated example, the request is for an incremental increase in H2 source power of 0.25 times the current usage, but this is merely an example for convenience. If more H2 source power is required, the signal repeats, as shown by signals 913 and 915. However, it is also possible that the fuel cell 140x / 140y associated with the remote device has reached its H2 capacity (e.g., up to 40% H2 in the ECF mix) and therefore cannot satisfy the request in signal 917. In this case, the server may send a rejection signal 919, and the facility served by the device may need to deploy an alternative power supply unit.

[0073] Fig.10 is a flow chart of an exemplary process that can be used at the user terminal 140x / 140y, the sustainable energy server 15, or distributed on both. The process starts with step S400, collecting demand data (e.g., Figure 7). The stored data (e.g. Figure 8 ) and H2 credit data (e.g. Figure 6 ). The process queries in step S406 whether the H2 usage is within a predetermined range (e.g., + / - 25% of the current total usage). If the response to the query is affirmative, the process returns to S400 and repeats the monitoring. However, if the response to the query in S406 is negative, the process is divided into two parts and proceeds to another query in S408: Is the H2 usage higher than threshold 1, or is the H2 usage lower than threshold 2? If the response is that the H2 usage is higher than threshold 1, the process continues to another query in step S410, asking whether there is available storage reserve (e.g., battery). If the query response in step S410 is affirmative, the process requests the use of more storage reserve in S412, and the process returns to S400. However, if the response to the query in step S410 is negative, the process can request more power from another source in S414, and the process can then return to step S400.

[0074] Returning to the query in S408, if the response is that the H2 usage is less than the threshold 2, the process proceeds to step S416, where the processor in the user terminal 140x / 140y requests the sustainable energy server 15 to increase the level of H2. Subsequently, the process proceeds to step S418, where it is asked whether the increase request is accepted. If the response to the query is affirmative, the process proceeds to step S420, where the process increases the amount of H2 credit attributed to the facility served by the user terminal 140x / 140y. However, if the response to the query in step S418 is negative, the process proceeds to step S422, where the H2 credit is reduced based on the lower usage of H2, and the process offsets the unmet demand by requesting electricity from alternative energy sources (e.g., obtaining electricity directly from the grid).

[0075] The following will explain how the computing device 1000 calculates the expected H2 demand / usage. Fig.14 The processing device may include a data extraction network 2000 and a data analysis network 3000, such as Fig.11 Further, Fig.12 As shown, the data extraction network may include at least one first feature extraction layer 210, at least one region of interest (ROI) pooling layer 220, at least one first output layer 230, and at least one data vectorization layer 240. Also, as shown in Fig.13 As shown, the data analysis network 300 may include at least one second feature extraction layer 310 and at least one second output layer 320 .

[0076] The specific process of developing a learning model to calculate H2 demand / usage will be explained below. First, the first embodiment of the present disclosure is introduced.

[0077] First, the computing device 1000 may obtain at least one subject data file, such as reference Figure 6 , Figure 7 and Figure 8 After acquiring the subject data file, in order to generate a source vector to be input to the data analysis network 3000, the computing device 1000 may instruct the data extraction network 2000 to generate a source vector including (i) obvious usage and (ii) obvious requirements.

[0078] To generate a source vector, computing device 1000 may instruct at least a portion of data extraction network 2000 to detect expected demand and expected usage.

[0079] Specifically, the computing device 1000 may instruct the first feature extraction layer 210 to apply at least one first convolution operation to the subject data file, thereby generating at least one subject feature map. Thereafter, the computing device 1000 may instruct the ROI pooling layer 220 to generate one or more ROI pooling feature maps by pooling regions on the subject feature map, which correspond to the ROI on the subject file obtained from the region proposal network (RPN) interacting with the data extraction network 2000. Furthermore, the computing device 1000 may instruct the first output layer 230 to generate at least one estimated apparent H2 usage and at least one estimated H2 demand. That is, the first output layer 230 may classify and regress the subject file by applying at least one first fully connected (FC) operation to the ROI pooling feature map to generate each of the estimated H2 usage and the estimated demand as a source vector.

[0080] Then, the computing device 1000 may instruct the data analysis network 3000 to calculate the estimated H2 demand using the source vector. Among them, the second feature extraction layer 310 of the data analysis network 300 may perform a second convolution operation on the source vector to generate at least one source feature map, and the second output layer 320 of the data analysis network 300 may regress by performing at least one FC operation on the source feature map, thereby calculating the estimated H2 demand and the estimated H2 demand.

[0081] As shown above, the computing device 1000 may include two neural networks, namely, the data extraction network 200 and the data analysis network 300. These two neural networks should be trained to correctly perform the above process. How to train these two neural networks will be explained below.

[0082] First, the data extraction network 2000 may have been trained using (i) multiple training files corresponding to previous demand scenarios (including their corresponding actual training demands), and (ii) their corresponding multiple rounds of real demands and usage. More specifically, the data extraction network 2000 may have applied the above operations to the training files and generated their corresponding estimated H2 demands and H2 usage. Then, reference may be made to (i) each pair of estimated H2 demands and their corresponding ground truth (GT) demands, and (ii) each pair of estimated usage and GT usage, so as to generate at least one usage loss and at least one demand loss using any loss generation algorithm (e.g., a smoothed Ll loss algorithm and a cross entropy loss algorithm). Thereafter, by referring to the usage loss and the demand loss, back propagation may be performed to learn at least part of the parameters of the data extraction network 200. The parameters of the RPN may also be trained, but the use of the RPN is well-known in the art, so further explanation is omitted here.

[0083] Herein, the data vectorization layer 240 may be implemented using a rule-based algorithm rather than a neural network algorithm. In this case, the data vectorization layer 240 may not need to be trained and may only be able to operate normally using settings input by an administrator.

[0084] For example, the first feature extraction layer 210, the ROI pooling layer 220, and the first output layer 230 may be obtained by applying well-known prior art transfer learning to an existing object detection network (eg, VGG or ResNet, etc.).

[0085] Secondly, the data analysis network 3000 may have been trained by using (i) multiple source vectors for training (including obvious usages for training and obvious demands for training as their components) and (ii) multiple corresponding GT usages and demands. More specifically, the data analysis network 3000 can apply the above operations to the training source vectors to calculate their corresponding training estimated usages. Then, each height pair of each estimated usage and each of their corresponding GT usages can be referenced to generate at least one usage loss by using any of the loss algorithms described. Thereafter, by referring to the usage losses, backpropagation can be performed to learn at least part of the parameters of the data analysis network 300.

[0086] After performing such a training process, computing device 100 can correctly calculate estimated H2 usage and estimated H2 demand by using theme files (including theme files for tracking manually selected usage and demand).

[0087] In the above description, any process, description or block in the flow chart can be understood to represent a module, code segment or part, which includes one or more executable instructions for implementing a specific logical function or step in the process, and alternative implementations are also included in the scope of exemplary embodiments of the present invention, wherein the functions can be performed in an order different from the order shown or discussed, including substantially simultaneously or in reverse order, depending on the functions involved, as understood by those skilled in the art. The various elements, features and processes described herein can be used independently of each other, or can be used in combination in various ways. All possible combinations and sub-combinations are intended to fall within the scope of the present disclosure.

[0088] Fig.14 1 is a functional block diagram showing a networked system 800 of one or more networked computers and sustainable energy servers 15s. In one embodiment, Fig.14 The hardware and software environment shown in may provide an exemplary platform for implementing software and / or methods according to the present disclosure.

[0089] refer to Fig.14 , the networked system 800 may include, but is not limited to, a computer 805, a network 810, a remote computer 815, a network sustainable energy server 15 820, a cloud storage server 825, and a computer server 830. In addition, it should be understood that the computer 805 may represent one or more of the system controller 115, the user terminal 140x / 140y, and the sustainable energy server 15 130.

[0090] Fig.14 More details of computer 805 are shown. The functional blocks shown in computer 805 are only used to establish exemplary functions and are not exhaustive. Although details of remote computer 815, network server 820, cloud storage server 825, and computer server 830 are not provided, these other computers and devices may include functions similar to those shown in computer 805.

[0091] Computer 805 may be a personal computer (PC), desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet computer, netbook computer, personal digital assistant (PDA), smartphone, or any other programmable electronic device capable of communicating with other devices on network 810 .

[0092] The computer 805 may include a processor 835, a bus 837, a memory 840, a non-volatile memory 845, a network interface 850, a peripheral interface 855, and a display interface 865. In some embodiments, each of these functions may be implemented as a separate electronic subsystem (an integrated circuit chip or a combination of a chip and associated devices), or in other embodiments, certain combinations of functions may be implemented on a single chip (sometimes referred to as a system on a chip or SoC).

[0093] Processor 835 may be one or more single-chip or multi-chip microprocessors, such as those designed and / or manufactured by Intel Corporation, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Arm Holdings (Arm), Apple Computer, etc. Examples of microprocessors include Intel Corporation's Celeron, Pentium, Core i3, Core i5, and Core i7; AMD's Opteron, Phenom, Athlon, Turion, and Ryzen; and Arm's Cortex-A, Cortex-R, and Cortex-M.

[0094] Bus 837 may be a proprietary or industry-standard high-speed parallel or serial peripheral interconnect bus such as ISA, PCI, PCI Express (PCI-e), AGP, etc.

[0095] The memory 840 and the non-volatile memory 845 may be computer-readable storage media. The memory 840 may include any suitable volatile storage device, such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and a static random access memory (SRAM). The non-volatile memory 845 may include one or more of the following: a floppy disk, a hard disk, a solid state drive (SSD), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash), an optical disk (CD or CD-ROM), a digital versatile disk (DVD), and a memory card or memory stick.

[0096] Program 848 may be a collection of machine-readable instructions and / or data stored in non-volatile memory 845 for creating, managing, and controlling certain software functions discussed in detail elsewhere in this disclosure and illustrated in the accompanying drawings. In some embodiments, memory 840 may be much faster than non-volatile memory 845. In such embodiments, program 848 may be transferred from non-volatile memory 845 to memory 840 prior to execution by processor 835.

[0097] Computer 805 may be able to communicate and interact with other computers via network 810 through network interface 850. Network 810 may be, for example, a local area network (LAN), a wide area network (WAN) such as the Internet, or a combination of both, and may include wired, wireless, or fiber optic connections. In general, network 810 may be any combination of connections and protocols that support communication between two or more computers and related devices.

[0098] The peripheral interface 855 may allow data to be input and output with other devices that may be locally connected to the computer 805. For example, the peripheral interface 855 may provide a connection with an external device 860. The external device 860 may include input devices such as a keyboard, a mouse, a keypad, a touch screen, and / or other suitable input devices. The external device 860 may also include a portable computer-readable storage medium, such as a thumb drive, a portable optical disk or disk, and a memory card. The software and data (e.g., program 848) for practicing the embodiments of the present disclosure may be stored on such a portable computer-readable storage medium. In such an embodiment, the software may be loaded onto the nonvolatile memory 845, or alternatively, directly loaded into the memory 840 via the peripheral interface 855. The peripheral interface 855 may be connected to the external device 860 using industry standard connections, such as RS-232 or a universal serial bus (USB).

[0099] The display interface 865 may connect the computer 805 to a display 870. In some embodiments, the display 870 may be used to present a command line or graphical user interface to a user of the computer 805. The display interface 865 may connect to the display 870 using one or more proprietary or industry standard connections such as VGA, DVI, DisplayPort, and HDMI.

[0100] As described above, the network interface 850 provides communication with other computing and storage systems or devices external to the computer 805. The software programs and data discussed herein can be downloaded to the non-volatile memory 845 from, for example, a remote computer 815, a network server 820, a cloud storage server 825, and a computer server 830 via the network interface 850 and the network 810. In addition, the systems and methods described in the present disclosure can be performed by one or more computers connected to the computer 805 via the network interface 850 and the network 810. For example, in some embodiments, the systems and methods described in the present disclosure can be performed by a remote computer 815, a computer server 830, or a combination of computers interconnected on the network 810.

[0101] Data, data sets, and / or databases employed in embodiments of the systems and methods described in the present disclosure may be stored and / or downloaded from remote computers 815 , network servers 820 , cloud storage servers 825 , and computer servers 830 .

[0102] According to a first embodiment, this document describes [1] a sustainable energy delivery system comprising:

[0103] A hybrid gas fuel cell configured to convert a mixed fuel fluid comprising a major portion of a carbon-based fuel and a minor portion of hydrogen (H2) into electrical energy;

[0104] a system controller including a control circuit configured to generate valve control commands based on inputs aggregated from a plurality of user terminals;

[0105] a controllable valve configured to adjust an amount of H2 from the first conduit added to the carbon-based fuel provided from the second conduit in response to the valve control command;

[0106] a delivery conduit that receives the mixed fuel fluid from the controllable valve and provides the mixed fuel fluid to the mixed gas fuel cell;

[0107] An electrical conductor that transmits the electrical energy generated by the mixed gas fuel cell to a load, wherein:

[0108] The system controller is configured to vary the valve control command based at least in part on an amount of H2 requested by a user terminal associated with the load, the user terminal being one of a plurality of user terminals.

[0109] The present invention also describes [2], which is a sustainable energy delivery system of [1], further comprising:

[0110] Another mixed gas fuel cell; and

[0111] another electrical conductor, said another electrical conductor transmitting the electrical energy generated by said another mixed gas fuel cell to another load, wherein:

[0112] The delivery pipeline comprises:

[0113] a first branch connected to the mixed gas fuel cell, and

[0114] Connected to a second branch of the other mixed gas fuel cell, the first branch is different from the second branch.

[0115] The present invention also describes [3], which is a sustainable energy delivery system of [1], wherein:

[0116] The system controller includes a web server configured to provide a web page on a display of the user terminal via the Internet, which displays a user-selectable H2 amount representing a load request on the display.

[0117] The present invention also describes [4], which is a sustainable energy delivery system of [3], wherein:

[0118] The system controller is further configured to cause the webpage to display, on the display of the user terminal, a cost associated with the selected amount of H2.

[0119] The present invention also describes [5], which is a sustainable energy delivery system of [3], wherein:

[0120] The system controller is further configured to cause the webpage to display on the display of the user terminal an indication of a change in an amount of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) produced in accordance with a selected amount of a user-selectable amount of H 2 representing a load request.

[0121] The present invention also describes [6], which is a sustainable energy delivery system of [3], wherein:

[0122] The system controller is further configured to cause the webpage to display on the display an indication of an amount of carbon credits associated with a selected amount of the user-selectable amount of H2 representing the load request.

[0123] The present invention also describes [7], which is a sustainable energy delivery system of [1], wherein:

[0124] In the event that a total amount of H2 requested by a plurality of user terminals exceeds a predetermined amount, the system controller is configured to set the valve control command to limit the amount of H2 to not exceed the predetermined amount.

[0125] Also described herein is [8], which is the sustainable energy delivery system of [7], wherein the predetermined amount of H2 corresponds to the maximum H2 percentage accommodated by the mixed gas fuel cell.

[0126] The present invention also describes [9], which is a sustainable energy delivery system of [1], further comprising:

[0127] A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored therein which, when executed by a mobile processor, cause the mobile processor to run an application (APP) that provides a user-selectable H2 amount representing a load request on a display of the mobile processor, wherein the mobile processor is a user terminal.

[0128] The present invention also describes

[10] , which is a sustainable energy delivery system of [9], further comprising:

[0129] a mobile processor, the mobile processor being one of a smartphone, a tablet computer, and a laptop computer, and

[0130] The mobile processor includes a wireless transmitter configured to wirelessly transmit a request message to the system controller, the request message including an indication of an amount of H2 representative of a load request.

[0131] The present invention also describes

[11] , which is a sustainable energy delivery system of [1], further comprising:

[0132] A user terminal having an account associated with the load and comprising a user interface, a transceiver, and a processing circuit, wherein the processing circuit is configured to:

[0133] generating a request signal in response to receiving H2 request information through the user interface, and

[0134] The request signal is transmitted to the system controller, the request signal including an indication of the amount of H2 requested by the user terminal.

[0135] The present invention also describes

[12] , which is a sustainable energy delivery system of [1], wherein:

[0136] Carbon-based fuels have CH4 as their main component.

[0137] The article also describes

[13] , which is a sustainable energy delivery system of [2], wherein:

[0138] The load is the electrical service equipment of the first residence, and

[0139] The other load is another electric service equipment of a different residence.

[0140] The present invention also describes

[14] , which is a sustainable energy delivery system of [1], wherein:

[0141] The system controller is configured as:

[0142] applying the trained AI engine to estimate the amount of H2 requested by the user terminal in order to offset a predetermined amount of CO2 emissions associated with the amount of the carbon-based fuel consumed by the hybrid gas fuel cell to meet the power demand of the load, and

[0143] The estimated value and a user selectable H2 request interface are simultaneously displayed on a display of the user terminal, the request interface enabling the user to request an amount of H2 requested for the load.

[0144] The present invention also describes

[15] , which is a sustainable energy delivery system of [1], wherein:

[0145] The proportion of electricity generated by the mixed gas fuel cell for the load due to H2 and accounted for by the first load is different from the proportion of H2 to carbon-based fuel output from the controllable valve.

[0146] According to a second embodiment, this document describes

[16] a controller for a sustainable energy delivery system, wherein the controller comprises:

[0147] circuitry configured to generate valve control commands based on input aggregated from a plurality of user terminals;

[0148] a controllable valve configured to adjust the amount of hydrogen (H2) from the first pipeline added to the carbon-based fuel provided from the second pipeline in response to the valve control command received, the controllable valve providing a mixed fuel fluid to the delivery pipeline, the mixed fuel fluid being input to the mixed gas fuel cell, the mixed fuel fluid converting the mixed fuel fluid into electrical energy provided to a load, wherein:

[0149] The controllable valve is configured to control the amount of H2 mixed with the carbon-based fuel so that the amount of H2 produced in the mixed fuel fluid is less than the amount of the carbon-based fuel, and

[0150] The circuit is configured to vary the valve control command based at least in part on an amount and / or percentage of H2 requested by a user terminal associated with the load, the user terminal being one of a plurality of user terminals.

[0151] This article also describes

[17] , which is a controller of

[16] , wherein:

[0152] The circuit is configured to generate valve control commands to accommodate an amount of H2 requested by the user terminal for the load and another amount of H2 requested by a different user terminal associated with a different mixed-gas fuel cell providing power service to a different load.

[0153] This article also describes

[18] , which is a controller of

[16] , wherein:

[0154] Carbon-based fuels mainly consist of methane (CH4).

[0155] According to a third embodiment, this document describes

[19] a method of controlling a sustainable energy delivery system, the method comprising:

[0156] receiving, at a system controller, a first message from a first user terminal associated with a first load, the first message having a first hydrogen (H2) request amount on behalf of the first load, the H2 being a minority component of a mixed fuel fluid having a carbon-based fuel as a majority component;

[0157] receiving, at the system controller, a second message from a second user terminal associated with a second load, the second message having a second H2 request amount representative of the second load;

[0158] aggregating the first H2 request amount and the second H2 request amount and forming an indication of an H2 aggregate amount;

[0159] generating a control valve control command corresponding to the H2 aggregate amount;

[0160] applying the control valve control command to a controllable valve;

[0161] regulating, by means of the controllable valve, to apply the total amount of the H2 supplied from the first pipeline to the carbon-based fuel supplied from the second pipeline to produce the mixed fuel fluid;

[0162] generating a first current through a first mixed gas fuel cell receiving a first portion of the mixed fuel fluid and providing the first current to the first load; and

[0163] generating a second electric current by a second mixed gas fuel cell receiving a second portion of the mixed fuel fluid and applying the second electric current to the second load, wherein:

[0164] The first H2 request amount and the second H2 request amount are different amounts, but the proportion of electricity generated by the first mixed gas fuel cell is the same as the proportion of electricity generated by the second mixed gas fuel cell.

[0165] The present invention also describes

[20] , which is a method for controlling a sustainable energy delivery system according to

[19] , the method further comprising:

[0166] allocating a first carbon credit amount corresponding to a first H2 request amount representing the first load to a first account associated with the first load and / or the first user terminal; and

[0167] Allocating a second carbon credit amount corresponding to a second H2 request amount representing the second load to a second account associated with the second load and / or the second user terminal, wherein:

[0168] The carbon-based fuel contains CH4 as a main component.

[0169] The above description is intended to illustrate possible implementations of the inventive concept, rather than limiting implementations. After reading this disclosure, many variations, modifications, and alternatives will become apparent to those skilled in the art. For example, components equivalent to the components shown and described may be replaced, so that the elements and methods described separately may be combined, and the elements described as discretely may be distributed over many components. Therefore, the scope of the present invention should not be determined with reference to the above description, but should be determined with reference to the appended claims and their full equivalent scopes.

Claims

1. A sustainable energy delivery system comprising: A hybrid gas fuel cell configured to convert a mixed fuel fluid comprising a major portion of a carbon-based fuel and a minor portion of hydrogen (H2) into electrical energy; a system controller including a control circuit configured to generate valve control commands based on inputs aggregated from a plurality of user terminals; a controllable valve configured to adjust an amount of H2 from the first conduit added to the carbon-based fuel provided from the second conduit in response to the valve control command; a delivery conduit that receives the mixed fuel fluid from the controllable valve and provides the mixed fuel fluid to the mixed gas fuel cell; an electrical conductor that transmits the electrical energy generated by the mixed gas fuel cell to a load, The system controller is configured to vary the valve control command based at least in part on an amount of H2 requested by a user terminal associated with the load, the user terminal being one of a plurality of user terminals.

2. The sustainable energy delivery system according to claim 1, further comprising: another mixed gas fuel cell; as well as another electrical conductor, the another electrical conductor transmitting the electrical energy generated by the another mixed gas fuel cell to another load, The delivery pipeline comprises: a first branch connected to the mixed gas fuel cell, and Connected to a second branch of the other mixed gas fuel cell, the first branch is different from the second branch.

3. The sustainable energy delivery system of claim 1, wherein the system controller comprises a web server configured to provide a web page on a display of the user terminal via the Internet, which displays a user-selectable H2 amount representing a load request on the display.

4. The sustainable energy delivery system of claim 3, wherein the system controller is further configured to cause the webpage to display a cost associated with the selected amount of H2 on a display of the user terminal.

5. A sustainable energy delivery system according to claim 3, wherein the system controller is further configured to cause the webpage to display on the display of the user terminal an indication of a change in the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) produced based on a selected amount of a user-selectable amount of H2 representing a load request.

6. The sustainable energy delivery system of claim 3, wherein the system controller is further configured to cause the webpage to display on the display an indication of an amount of carbon credits associated with a selected amount of a user-selectable amount of H2 representing a load request.

7. The sustainable energy delivery system of claim 1, wherein when a total amount of H2 requested by a plurality of user terminals exceeds a predetermined amount, the system controller is configured to set the valve control command to limit the amount of H2 to not exceed the predetermined amount.

8. The sustainable energy delivery system of claim 7, wherein the predetermined amount of H2 corresponds to a maximum H2 percentage accommodated by the mixed gas fuel cell.

9. The sustainable energy delivery system of claim 1, further comprising: A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored therein which, when executed by a mobile processor, cause the mobile processor to run an application (APP) that provides a user-selectable H2 amount representing a load request on a display of the mobile processor, wherein the mobile processor is a user terminal.

10. The sustainable energy delivery system of claim 9, further comprising: The mobile processor is one of a smart phone, a tablet computer and a laptop computer, and The mobile processor includes a wireless transmitter configured to wirelessly transmit a request message to the system controller, the request message including an indication of an amount of H2 representative of a load request.

11. The sustainable energy delivery system of claim 1 , further comprising: The user terminal has an account associated with the load and includes a user interface, a transceiver, and a processing circuit, wherein the processing circuit is configured to: generating a request signal in response to receiving H2 request information through the user interface, and The request signal is transmitted to the system controller, the request signal including an indication of the amount of H2 requested by the user terminal.

12. The sustainable energy delivery system according to claim 1, wherein the carbon-based fuel has CH4 as a main component.

13. The sustainable energy delivery system of claim 2, wherein the load is an electric service device of a first residence, and the another load is another electric service device of a different residence.

14. The sustainable energy delivery system of claim 1, wherein the system controller is configured to: applying the trained AI engine to estimate the amount of H2 requested by the user terminal in order to offset a predetermined amount of CO2 emissions associated with the amount of the carbon-based fuel consumed by the hybrid gas fuel cell to meet the power demand of the load, and The estimated value and a user selectable H2 request interface are simultaneously displayed on a display of the user terminal, the request interface enabling the user to request an amount of H2 requested for the load.

15. The sustainable energy delivery system of claim 1 wherein the proportion of electricity generated by the hybrid gas fuel cell for the load due to H2 and accounted for by the load is different than the proportion of H2 to carbon-based fuel output from the controllable valve.

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