Design and Construction of an Electric Energy Conditioning System for a PEM Type Fuel Cell

Nowadays, fuel cells have emerged as an attractive source of energy. Due to their electrical behavior, the use of fuel cells becomes a challenging task. This work presents the development of an energy conditioning system for a PEM type fuel cell. The purpose of the developed system is to provide a good 230 V ac rms 50 Hz signal for a 1 kVA system that is able to handle sporadic high power demands up to 3 kVA. The system uses supercapacitors to provide this extra power during a certain amount of time. A description is given for the different constructive modules and control objectives.