Design and Control of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Systems

The depletion of fossil fuel has lead to renewed interest in fuel cell systems. The last decade has seen significant progress in power generation using fuel cell systems. It is well known that power generation using hydrogen as fuel involves three important issues: Hydrogen generation, Hydrogen storage, and Power generation. The objective of this work is to emphasize systematic approaches to the modeling, design, and control of fuel cell systems. At the modeling stage, a first principles model of a fuel cell is constructed and model parameters are identified via regression from the experimental data (provided by ITRI). Next, sensitivity of dominant process variables to design and operating efficiency is examined. This facilitates locating the optimal operating condition as well as improved design. Finally, a control system is designed to ensure operating flexibility as well as good disturbance rejection. The model of an experimental proton exchange membrane fuel cell for power generation is developed for process design and optimization. An analytical cost model is constructed to describe such an economic tradeoff between capital cost (membrane electrode assembly area) and operating cost (hydrogen fuel) in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell system. At the process level, the kinetics development, modeling and control of a hydrogen storage process (using sodium borohydride) is investigated.