A New Method to Manage the Fuel Cell Initialization

Author(s)

de Aguiar, Cassius Rossi ; Favaro Fuzato, Guilherme Henrique ; Quirino Magossi, Rafael Fernando ; Alves Neves, Rodolpho Vilela ; Machado, Ricardo Quadros

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON INDUSTRY APPLICATIONS; v. 54, n. 5, p. 9-pg., 2018-09-01.

Abstract

This paper presents a new methodology to manage the initialization process of fuel cells (FCs) as a main source in a microgrid. The startup aims to reduce the warming-up time, increase the FC efficiency, and decrease the time response. As a solution, the use of storage systems combined with an adaptive gain scheduling to absorb the power transients improve the microgrid stability and avoid the dc-link voltage collapse is proposed when we perform short circuits at the FC terminals. In the first analysis, we evaluate the mathematical model to obtain the gain of the interleaved boost with voltage multiplier (IBVM) as a function of the hydrogen pressure, membrane resistances, and temperature, i.e., the effect of the chemical variables on the IBVM terminal voltage. In the second part, an adaptive gain scheduling to compensate the short-circuit effects on the FC terminals is designed. To analyze the feasibility of the proposed technique, the frequency and step response for different gain scheduling is performed. Finally, we present a set of experimental results to support the theoretical study and demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 16/21120-2 - Tuning an adaptive PID controller obtained via linear optimization with constraints and pointwise Thévenin equivalent
• Grantee: Rafael Fernando Quirino Magossi
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• FAPESP's process: 12/12770-2 - integration of alternative sources system connected to the grid
• Grantee: Renan Fernandes Bastos
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• FAPESP's process: 13/09788-0 - OPERATION AND CONTROL OF PEM FUEL CELL IN DISTRIBUTED GENERATION SYSTEMS CONNECTED TO THE GRID
• Grantee: Cassius Rossi de Aguiar
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• FAPESP's process: 16/25017-1 - Measurement-Based Control and Its Applications
• Grantee: Vilma Alves de Oliveira
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• FAPESP's process: 13/20721-4 - Sistem for interconection of distributed generators to the grid: sintesis of micro grids
• Grantee: Ricardo Quadros Machado
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants