Experimental Analysis of a Fuzzy Scheme against a Robust Controller for a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell System

Cristian Napole,Mohamed Derbeli,Oscar Barambones

doi:10.3390/sym14010139

Cristian Napole, Mohamed Derbeli + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/sym14010139

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Journal: Symmetry	Publication Date: Jan 12, 2022
Citations: 2	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Centro de Tecnologías Aeronauticas (Spain)

Abstract

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) are capable of transforming chemical energy into electrical energy with zero emissions. Therefore, these devices had been a point of attention for the scientific community as to provide another solution to renewable sources of energy. Since the PEMFC is commonly driven with a power converter, a controller has to be implemented to supply a convenient voltage. This is an important task as it allows the system to be driven at an operative point, which can be related to the maximum power or an user desired spot. Along this research article, a robust controller was compared against a fuzzy logic strategy (with symmetric membership functions) where both were implemented to a commercial PEMFC through a dSPACE 1102 control board. Both proposals were analysed in an experimental test bench. Outcomes showed the advantages and disadvantages of each scheme in chattering reduction, accuracy, and convergence speed.

Highlights

Renewable energies are a trending topic nowadays due to the future of climate change
The load step jumped from 20 Ω to 50 Ω, which was steady until 45 s
The first graph to be analysed is the acquired current, which was the variable to be followed. This is mainly because the controller objective is to keep the Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC) current at a constant value even when external perturbations are presented

Summary

Introduction

Renewable energies are a trending topic nowadays due to the future of climate change In this sense, current main technologies that could replace conventional sources are photovoltaic systems (conversion efficiency of ≈20%), wind turbines (conversion efficiency of ≈25%), and turbine generators (conversion efficiency of ≈30–40%) [1,2]. Because of the groundbreaking innovation of fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEV) and large capacity stationary fuel cells (LCSFC), the interest has been growing exponentially since 2007 [5] This is principally due to their emissions level that could reach up to 0% (depending on the type and fuel) and a high efficiency that yields up to 60% [6,7]

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