Performance Analysis of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell Using MATLAB

This work proposes a comprehensive performance analysis of a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) utilizing MATLAB simulations. Fossil fuels are used to create electricity, and that's why the world is currently dealing with issues like ozone depletion, global warming, and energy shortages. Fuel cells are regarded as environmentally acceptable and successful innovations of the future since they can overcome these challenges. One of the most widely used fuel cell types is PEMFC, which holds the potential to provide clean, efficient power for a range of applications, including vehicles and stationary power systems. Due to its notable features, which include low operating temperature, rapid variety by stack, high efficiency, and superior power density, it is the most widely dispersed and well-known type of market. This paper describes the PEM fuel cell stack and uses MATLAB/Simulink to run its model and analyses the factors that affect fuel cell stack efficiency as well as what's happening inside the stack. Additionally, the fuel flow rate fluctuations are investigated in relation to the fuel cell stack parameters. It has been observed from the scopes that when the fuel flow rate changed, it also impacted the hydrogen utilisation, stack efficiency, current and voltage in the FC stack, as well as the DC current and voltage.