Enhancing Polymeric Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell Control by Means of the Perturb and Observe Technique

In this paper, the use of an adaptive technique aimed at controlling a polymeric electrolyte membrane fuel cell is introduced. It is demonstrated that a hill climbing-based method, acting on the compressor speed and/or the cathode back-pressure valve, allows to better take into account the effect of exogenous variables on stack performance. Particularly, the proposed technique has proven to perform better than classical feedforward/feedback approaches when well known aging mechanisms deteriorate cell efficiency. Numerical results based on experimentally derived models confirm the potential of the proposed control method and its intrinsic reliability.