Designing of PI and Smith Predictor Controller for the Dynamic Performance Enhancement of Non-linear PEM Fuel Cell System

The PEM Fuel Cell technology is very efficient and clean, and it is often regarded as the brightest source of green energy. The working principles of a PEMFC system are complicated nonlinear systems. The manifold pressure at cathode side should be maintained to avoid the oxygen starvation. In this paper, P-I and Smith-Predictor Controllers are proposed for the controlling manifold pressure of a nonlinear PEM fuel cell. The result of nonlinear PEM-FC with P-I and Smith Predictor Controller are collated in terms of settling time, over-shoot, steady state error and rise time. The proposed controllers are optimized with PID Tuner. The results of MATLAB simulation reveal that the Smith Predictor Controller outperforms the P-I Controller in nonlinear PEM-FC systems.