Title: PI-based hybrid control for load-stress management of a fuel cell-based hybrid power system

Authors: Kumaril Buts; Lillie Dewan; M.P.R. Prasad

Addresses: Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra-136119, Haryana, India ' Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra-136119, Haryana, India ' Department of Electrical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra-136119, Haryana, India

Abstract: Proton exchange membrane-based hydrogen fuel cell (PEMHFC) provides electrical power with zero carbon emission. It is an electrochemical device (viz. batteries) that delivers a DC power supply. The lifecycle of the PEMHFC is significantly affected by the stack current stress, in particular, during high load demand when the current stepping up. This results in fuel/oxygen starvation and is liable to slow electrochemical reaction dynamics. Therefore, PEMHFC stack current regulation is crucially important along with fulfilling the power need. In this paper, a Proportional and Integral (PI)-based hybrid control system is proposed to achieve the current limiting and maintain the voltage level simultaneously for PEMHFC and battery-supported hybrid systems during the demand of the variable loads. The proposed control approach is first verified in MATLAB simulation with variable loads and then implemented at the hardware level in the LabVIEW environment.

Keywords: coordinated control; cascaded control; hybrid control; average-value converter model; power management; proton exchange membrane hydrogen fuel cell; PEMHFC.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMIC.2023.133171

International Journal of Modelling, Identification and Control, 2023 Vol.43 No.3, pp.187 - 198

Received: 23 Apr 2022
Received in revised form: 06 Sep 2022
Accepted: 08 Sep 2022
Published online: 01 Sep 2023 *

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