Electrical architecture for high power segmented PEM Fuel Cell in vehicle application

ABSTRACT In the objective of power increase for transport applications or on-board auxiliaries systems, long fuel cell stacks may be subject to disparities (fluidics, temperature) and can be the cause of possible failures. Coupled with a fault detection strategy, the power converter associated with the fuel cell can act to manage the fault. This article is about power converter topologies applied to a segmented high power fuel cell. The fuel cell generator is a 3-part segmented Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) fuel cell. Each fuel cell segment can be controlled independently according to its state of health (SoH). The converter topology has to be simple, compact, reliable and with a high efficiency. The resonant isolated boost as converter "technology brick", allowing soft switching is a candidate topology to meet the technical specifications of the multi-port fuel cell-converter system

Concentrated Photovoltaic (CPV): Hydrogen Design Methodology and Optimization

To compete with the fossil fuel, there is a need for steady power supply from renewable energy systems. Solar energy, being highest potential energy source, is only available during diurnal period. Therefore, for steady power supply, an energy storage system is needed to be coupled with the primary solar energy system. For such application, hydrogen production is proved to provide long term and sustainable energy storage. However, firstly, there is a need to capture solar energy with higher efficiency for minimum energy storage and reduced system size. Concentrated photovoltaic (CPV) system, utilizing multi-junction solar cell (MJC), provides highest energy conversion efficiency among all photovoltaic systems. Despite, there is no model reported in the literature regarding its performance simulation and stand-alone operation optimization. None of the commercial software is capable of handling CPV performance simulation. In this chapter, a detailed performance model and an optimization strategy are proposed for stand-alone operation of CPV with hydrogen production as energy storage. A multi-objective optimization technique is developed using micro-GA for its techno-economic analysis. The performance model of MJC is developed based upon the cell characteristics of InGaP/InGaAs/Ge triple-junction solar cell. The system design is presented for uninterrupted power supply with minimum system cost