Model Predictive Control of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell by Feedback Linearization

Load Transients will cause a high voltage drop in a short time. To remove the harmful effect of fast pulsed currents, a model predictive controller (MPC) is designed based on the proposed model to prolong the stack life of the PEM fuel cells. In this paper a model predictive controller has been developed based on a single-input single-output (SISO) dynamic nonlinear model of proton exchange membrane fuel cell and using the hydrogen flow rate to manipulate the output voltage and present the safe operation of the fuel cell. Feedback linearization is applied to the PEM fuel cell system so that the deviation can be kept as small as possible during disturbances or load variations. During the control design, hydrogen inlet flow rate is defined as the control variable, and the output voltage as the control objective. Simulation results show that controlling the fuel cell terminal voltage have better transient and steadystate performance with the help of the proposed MPC controller rather than classical PID controller