Emulation of high temperature PEM fuel cell electrical dynamics and operational phenomena

This paper presents a new emulator system for a high temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cell (HT PEMFC). Many models and emulators for low temperature (LT) PEM fuel cells exist, however these need to be adapted specifically for the representation of the high temperature systems. Specific consideration was given to the development of the model for integration with the emulator system in order to replicate transient phenomena. The emulator hardware is based on a two stage approach to enable the system to deliver accurate outputs in the steady state and transient domains. The design of the two stage emulator system is presented. The power stage converter produces the controllable DC link that tracks the polarization curves as predicted by the model. A multiphase interleaved topology was implemented as the control stage converter to accurately reproduce the dynamic effects of the high temperature fuel cell system. The experimental results of the fuel cell stack, HT PEM FC model and emulator are presented to confirm the performance of the proposed system.