Microcontroller-based emulation of a PEM fuel cell

This paper proposes an accurate and easy-to-implement emulator which is able to track the characteristic curve of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC). Such an emulator is based on a low-cost microcontroller , isolated voltage and current sensors. The proposed emulator takes advantages of the flexibility and robustness. The sensed voltage and current provide to the microcontroller the accurate information to compute the output voltage of an actual PEMFC. The obtained voltage is sent to a digital-to-analog converter in order to command the continuous control voltage. The simplified electrochemistry model is presented and validated through simulation and then corroborated via experimentation. The proposed emulator is subjected to two load conditions: fixed load resistor and power electronic converter. The employed power converter is controlled by a variable duty cycle which is adjusted to a value at which the power extracted from the emulator is maximum.