Sistema de control para reducir el consumo de hidrógeno en celdas de combustible PEM considerando incertidumbres paramétricas

• Published in: Tecno - Lógicas (Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano) Vol. 19; no. 37; pp. 45 - 59
• Main Authors: Richard Rios, Carlos A. Ramos-Paja, Jairo J. Espinosa
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto Tecnológico Metropolitano 01.07.2016
• Subjects: Kalman filter; oxygen excess ratio; parametric uncertainty; PEM fuel cells; Perturb & Observe
• ISSN: 0123-7799; 2256-5337
• DOI: 10.22430/22565337.59

This paper presents a control system for reducing the hydrogen consumption for a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cell, also considering parametric uncertainties. The control system is based on a non-linear state space model of the fuel cell, a Kalman filter/estimator, a linear state feedback controller and a Maximum Power Point (MPP) tracking algorithm. The control objective is to supply the requested load power, avoiding oxygen starvation with minimum fuel consumption using a Perturb and Observe (P&O) algorithm. The performance of the control system was assessed under parametric uncertainties by simulating a performance degradation of the compressor due to aging. Thus, two cases were simulated: first, a mismatch between the system and the linear model in the (open-loop) air compressor gain; and second, a mismatch between the system and the linear model in the current compressor and losses. The simulation results showed that the Kalman filter/estimator overcome the uncertainties produced by the parametrical variations. Besides, the P&O algorithm accomplished to provide the suitable compressor voltage without identifying an optimal profile under ideal operating conditions and empirical data.