Controller based modelling and controller design of PEMFCs

Due to the fact that the fossil fuels, main energy resource of the world, seriously harm environment and have been depleting, hydrogen fueled energy systems have been foreseen as alternative energy source and followed by development of fuel cells. Fuel cell systems are especially suitable for mobile applications owing to near-zero emission, having immobile parts, operating noiseless and being modular structure.Among the other types PEM (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane) fuel cells are most common type of fuel cells. Operating in lower temperatures, starting-up in short time, having the lower thermal losses and having simple controllability make PEM fuel cells popular, about 90% of the fuel cell researchers concerned on PEMFC?s.In this thesis, dynamic modeling of PEMFC is studied and the system is analyzed under two subsystems for the sake of controller design. These two subsystems are compressor supply manifold subsystem and fuel cell stack subsystem consequently. For each subsystem different controllers are proposed. Model reference adaptive controller (MRAC), irresponsive to parameter changes, is realized for the compressor-supply manifold model, and linear quadratic regulator (LQR), provides to consume minimum parasitic power, is realized for the fuel cell stack system. Both designed controllers perform successfully and achieve performance criteria.Keywords: PEM Fuel Cells, Control of PEM Fuel Cells, Dynamic Modeling, Linear Quadratic Regulator, Model Reference Adaptive Control