Fuel Cell Power Conditioning System for Stand-Alone and GridConnected Applications
Abstract
Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell represents one of the most promising clean energy
sources in the near future. It can be made from very thin membrane electrode assembly and
offers the flexibility of stacking multiple fuel cells for meeting various power requirements.
Recently, there has been growing interest in employing PEM fuel cells to small power plants
for residential or commercial buildings for co-production of electricity and heat or as backup
power. However, there are still some design issues that must be overcome in order to achieve
the best results from the fuel cell power system. The main design issues include:
1. The development of a high step-up voltage ratio, wide input voltage range, small
thermal stress, and high efficiency power converter to be used as an interface between
the fuel cell and load.
2. The development of a power management system to ensure an uninterrupted power
supply to the load by using energy storage units such as batteries or super-capacitors.
3. The development of a control scheme to eliminate the low frequency current ripples
that can degrade the performance and durability of fuel cell.
4. The development of a seamless control scheme to ensure smooth transition between
grid-connected and standalone mode without affecting normal operation while the
power system disconnects from the grid.
All these issues are critical to the power system’s performance, reliability, and durability. It is
the aim of this research proposal to address these issues and outline the research methods that
enable us to find practical solutions to them. A fully functional PEM fuel cell’s power
conditioning system will be designed, constructed, and tested for verifying the effectively of the
proposed solutions.