Multi channel voltage control for fuel cells

Cell voltage control is a safe method to evaluate the operation of the single cells even though large efforts are being made to stabilise the behaviour of the fuel cells over the whole operating range. For fully developed systems only voltage control of single cells is necessary, whereas in test benches it is necessary to record data of the voltages during operation. Normally, a lot of cells are combined to a stack so that higher total voltages can be reached. Higher voltages make possible a high efficient transformation from direct current of the stack to alternate current of the public network. Sometimes more than 100 cells are connected together whereby the open circuit voltage of a single cell amounts to approximately 1 V. Therefore, the signal processing chips show a high supply maximum rating or the resolution of the values has to be reduced.This paper presents an economically priced multi channel voltage control for single cells of a PEM-fuel cell in combination with a microprocessor control and was developed at the Chair for Electric Power Networks and Renewable Energy Sources. The developed system can transfer the data of up to 32 single cells in serial connection. The resolution amounts to 10 bits per channel. The module has its own microprocessor, which is responsible for the intermediate storage of the collected data and the transfer to the RS-232 interface. Optionally, the module can be equipped with an LCD-display of 20 × 4 letters where different menus of the measured and calculated values can be indicated. The module is designed for a voltage of 1 V per channel and can be supplied with a direct voltage of between 6 and 24 V from the fuel cell stack.