Dynamic power control and performance analysis of Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell - Battery hybrid system

Fuel Cells have limited dynamic behavior. Hence, to meet transient load requirements, they are used as hybrids with energy storage devices such as batteries, ultra capacitors etc in Fuel Cell Power Sources (FCPS). In the applications where the power requirement varies dynamically the reactant flow rates are required to be controlled as per the power requirements and also power flow between FC and battery is to be controlled. FCPS usually consists of a dc-dc power converter between FC and the load to regulate the load voltage in the face of a widely varying FC voltage. This paper presents a MATLAB Simulink^® based dynamic model of FCPS for a 700W PAFC system with power controller and dynamic load model, for analyzing the dynamic performance and various parameters of the system. A lead acid battery of 17Ah is used to improve the transient response of the FCPS. All the analytical and simulation results are included. Experimental results are presented to validate the model with a dynamic load profile.