Solutions to Power Management Based on Voltage and Current Control Methods Applied to Fuel Cell Hybrid Systems

This paper presents a prototype of a Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell hybrid system with a battery bank and all the power electronics and control needed to manage the system. The hybrid system has been built to supply DC loads. Voltage and current levels established on electrical interconnection points are achieved with several power conditioning stages controlled by Pulse Width Modulation (PWM). Experimental results reflect three significant aspects: the first one, the key to apply voltage or current control method according to application type, the second one, the proper functioning of the controlled hybrid system, and the last one, the way to solve the known problem of fuel cell starvation. Then, this paper presents two interfaces for energy interchange and propose two solutions for energy control on systems based on alternative energy.