Proton exchange membrane fuel cell — A smart drive algorithm

Considering limited ability of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) systems to produce power, it is necessary to provide conditions, in which, the maximum power of the PEMFC can be achieved. The maximum power point tracker has an important role in increasing the efficiency of the PEMFC. One of its difficulties is rapid changes in operating conditions which affects on the maximum power point. This paper presents a smart algorithm applied to DC/DC boost converter for extracting the maximum power from the PEMFC. In order to verify the performance of the proposed method, simulations are performed in MATLAB/SIMULINK environment. A comparison of results indicates that the proposed method has considerable advantages compared to conventional perturb and observe (P&O).