Design of Intelligent BoP and Tubular Cell-based Flexible Hydrogen Fuel Cell System

Due to global warming, interest in eco-friendly fuels is increasing. In particular, as hydrogen is an eco-friendly fuel that does not emit environmental pollutants (i.e. carbon dioxide), its importance is increasing as an alternative fuel to existing energy sources. Hydrogen fuel cells generate electricity through a chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. A hydrogen fuel cell consists of a stack and BoP (Balance of Plant). The stack chemically reacts hydrogen and oxygen. The BoP is responsible for thermal management, water and air supply, etc. Current hydrogen fuel cells have a problem in that the entire fuel cell stack must be replaced even if only one cell causes a problem. The amount of electricity produced varies according to the control result of the BoP. In this paper, we design a new type of separation tubular cell and intelligent BoP based hydrogen fuel cell system. It can solve the fuel cell stack problem dependent on the unit cell. For efficient electricity production, BoP is intelligent based on IoT-Edge and big data/AI.