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

Abstract

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.

Keywords

• PEM fuel cells
• oxygen excess ratio
• Kalman filter
• parametric uncertainty
• Perturb & Observe