A prototype of a fuel cell PEM emulator based on a buck converter

After a brief introduction about fuel cell systems, and their modelling, this paper proposes a possible solution to emulate a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEM-FC) system by using a DC–DC buck converter. The fuel cell system, including all its auxiliaries and related control systems, is emulated by a buck converter realized experimentally and controlled in the DSPACE environment. The realization of the buck converter allows the behaviour of any fuel cells to be easily emulated since only the modification of the control law of the switch is necessary. The proposed emulator can be applied easily to other fuel cell systems if the polarization curve has the same current rate and maximum power. In this way it is possible to utilize the converter and perform the necessary tests to optimize a fuel cell system by avoiding the waste of hydrogen and the purchase of cells as well as any cell damage. With regard to current other types of emulators, the one presented here has the following characteristics: (1) all the auxiliaries of the system have been considered, each including its own control system, as in a real FCS, (2) the converter is a classical buck converter with a free-wheeling diode and is designed to have a high bandwidth and to be practically always in conduction mode (discontinuous mode appears only at very low currents) (3) the voltage control is made by a space-state controller, able to fix properly the closed loop poles of the system, thus guaranteeing the desired bandwidth of the control system and (4) it can be used in laboratory as a stand-alone low-cost system for design and experimental purposes.