High-Performance Tracking for Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell System PEMFC Using Model Predictive Control

Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell has recently attracted broad attention from many researchers due to its cleanliness, high efficiency and soundless operation. The obtention of high-performance output characteristics is required to overcome the market restrictions of the PEMFC technologies. Therefore, the main aim of this work is to maintain the system operating point at an adequate and efficient power stage with high-performance tracking. To this end, a model predictive control (MPC) based on a global minimum cost function for a two-step horizon was designed and implemented in a boost converter integrated with a fuel cell system. An experimental comparative study has been investigated between the MPC and a PI controller to reveal the merits of the proposed technique. Comparative results have indicated that a reduction of 15.65% and 86.9% , respectively, in the overshoot and response time could be achieved using the suggested control structure.The authors wish to express their gratitude to the Basque Government, through the project EKOHEGAZ (ELKARTEK KK-2021/00092), to the Diputación Foral de Álava (DFA), through the project CONAVANTER, and to the UPV/EHU, through the project GIU20/063, for supporting this work

A Novel Two Stage Controller for a DC-DC Boost Converter to Harvest Maximum Energy from the PV Power Generation

In this article, an efficient and fast two-stage approach for controlling DC-DC boost converter using non linear sliding mode controller for a PV power plant is proposed. The control approach is based on two online methods instead of using the conventional combination of online and offline methods to harvest maximum energy and deliver an output PV voltage with reduced ripples. The proposed two-stage maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control can be integrated into many applications such as hybrid electric vehicles. Simulation results compared with the standard approaches P&O prove the tracking efficiency of the proposed method under fast changing atmospheric conditions of an average 99.87% and a reduced average ripple of 0.06. The two-stage MPPT control was implemented involving the embedded dSPACE DSP in comparison to the classical P&O to prove the efficiency and the validity of the control scheme. The experimental set-up system was carried out on boost converter and programmable DC electronic resistive load to highlights the robustness of the proposed controller against atmospheric changes and parametric variation. View Full-Tex