A semi-empirical multipurpose steady-state model of a fuel cell for household appliances

In this paper, a multipurpose model of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell for household appliances is proposed. According to a conventional mathematical approach, the proposed model is derived from the physical and electro-chemical equations that rule the fuel cell behaviour. Differently from existing models, a parametric analysis is carried out and a few tunable parameters are accurately selected and identified. Furthermore, this paper proposes an innovative technique of unique model architecture which enables the designer to solve by himself the trade-off between complexity and accuracy on the basis of the specific applications. Three different choices could be performed by the designer. The model is derived and performances are discussed. Experimental validation on a 5kW Nuvera PowerFlow fuel cell is proposed to test the absolute accuracy of each submodel.