Modelling and fuel flow dynamic control of proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Abstract

This paper describes the modelling and control of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC). Fuel cells are expected to play an important role in both stationary and mobile applications. Generally, during fuel cell stacks operation, the hydrogen flow is maintained constant and is imposed by required maximum current. This could result in fuel stagnation. To ovoid this problem, this paper proposes a dynamic control of hydrogen and oxygen flows to improve the PEMFC efficiency. The dynamic model of the PEMFC system and the control of the DC/DC converter using proportionalintegral (PI) are presented. A proportional Integral (PI) regulator is designed in the aim to control the current which should be provided by the fuel cell. Then, a method to calculate the fuel flow is presented using another proportional-Integral (PI). This strategy permits to avoid a fuel cell reactants starvation or the waste of the fuel flow. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is validated by theoretical analysis and simulation using Matlab/Simulink software.