Optimal Oxygen Excess Ratio Control for PEM Fuel Cells

• Published in: IEEE transactions on control systems technology Vol. 26; no. 5; pp. 1711 - 1721
• Main Authors: Chen, Jian, Liu, Zhiyang, Wang, Fan, Ouyang, Quan, Su, Hongye
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.09.2018; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Air compressors; Air supply systems; Atmospheric modeling; Cathodes; Control systems design; Feedback linearization; feedback linearization control; Fuel cells; Fuels; Nonlinear control; optimal oxygen excess ratio; Oxygen; Power consumption; Predictive models; Proton exchange membrane fuel cells; Stability analysis; Tracking; Voltage control; Voltage measurement
• ISSN: 1063-6536; 1558-0865
• DOI: 10.1109/TCST.2017.2723343

In this paper, a feedback linearization controller is proposed for the van compressor in the air supply system of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell. The control goal is to avoid oxygen starvation and reduce power consumption by tracking an optimal reference oxygen excess ratio. Specifically, an improved control-oriented third-order model of the air supply system is proposed with the model identification of the air compressor. The optimal reference oxygen excess ratio is obtained from experiments to maintain a maximum net power. Based on the air supply system model, a nonlinear controller is designed to track the optimal oxygen excess ratio using feedback linearization. Lyapunov-based technique is utilized to analyze the stability of the closed-loop system. Effectiveness of the proposed approach is illustrated by experimental results.