Control strategy for the anode gas supply system in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell system
Xingyi Li, Heng Wei, Changqing Du, Chenxu Shi, Jiaming Zhang
Abstract
Stable pressure control can improve the lifespan, efficiency, and stability of proton exchange membrane fuel cell system (PEMFCs). We successfully implemented a feedforward-based proportion-integral controller (FPIC) to control the anode pressure of a 100 kW fuel cell system. The bench experimental results demonstrate that the fuel cell stack achieves a maximum efficiency of 62.3 %, while the fuel cell power generation system achieve a maximum efficiency of 53.5 %. Under the steady-state and dynamic conditions, the strategy achieves a pressure tracking control accuracy of 98.93 % and 94.47 %, respectively. To address the large overshoot phenomenon and slow response speed of the FPIC when controlling the anode pressure, we further design a second order active disturbance rejection controller (SOADRC). The simulation results show that the SOADRC exhibits higher control stability and lower overshoot than FPIC. Moreover, it demonstrates a 51.3 % increase in response speed and an 80.7 % improvement in control stability under steady-state conditions compared to FPIC. The evaluation metrics for the error integral criterion (eISE = 0.023, eITSE = 2.58, eIAE = 0.35, and eIEAE = 36.76) are lower than FPIC, which demonstrates that the SOADRC provides more precise control of anode pressure, and enhances the stability of PEMFCs.