Energy Management Strategy for a Fuel Cell/Ultracapasitor/Battery Hybrid System for Portable Applications

Abstract

A proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells (FCs) with ultracapacitor (UC) and battery (BT) hybrid system has fast transient response compare to stand alone FCs. This hybrid system is promising candidates for environmentally friendly alternative energy sources. An energy management system design and control strategy was introduced in this study. The energy management strategy FC/UC/BT hybrid system model has been developed and the control strategy was programmed in the LabVIEW™ environment and implemented using National Instrument (NI) devices. The energy management strategy is able to manage the energy flow between the main power source (FCs) and auxiliary sources (UC and BT). To control the hybrid system and achieved proper performance, a controller circuit was developed with the three energy sources aligned in parallel to deliver the requested power. The developed model demonstrates the proportion power from the FC, UC and BT under various load demand. Experimental results demonstrate that FC/UC/BT hybrid system operated automatically with the varying load condition. The experimental results are presented; showing that the proposed strategy utilized the characteristic of both energy storage devices thus satisfies the load requirement.Keywords: proton exchange membrane fuel cell, ultracapacitor, battery, hybrid energy system, energy management strategy Abstrak Sistem hibrid sel bahan api (FC) membran penukaran proton (PEM) dengan ultrakapasitor (UC) dan bateri (BT) mempunyai tindak balas yang lebih cepat berbanding FC sahaja. Sistem hibrid adalah salah satu sumber tenaga alternatif mesra alam yang amat berpotensi. Satu reka bentuk sistem pengurusan tenaga dan strategi kawalan telah diperkenalkan dalam kajian ini. Model strategi pengurusan tenaga sistem hibrid FC/UC/BT telah dibangunkan dan strategi kawalan telah diprogramkan dalam perisian LabVIEW™ dan dilaksanakan dengan menggunakan peranti instrument Nasional (NI). Strategi pengurusan tenaga ini mampu untuk menguruskan aliran tenaga di antara sumber kuasa utama (FC) dan sumber kuasa tambahan lain (UC dan BT). Untuk mengawal sistem hibrid dan mencapai prestasi yang sewajarnya, litar pengawal telah dibangunkan dengan tiga sumber tenaga sejajar selari untuk menyediakan permintaan kuasa. Model yang dibangunkan menunjukkan keseimbangan jumlah kuasa daripada FC, UC dan BT di bawah pelbagai permintaan beban. Keputusan eksperimen menunjukkan bahawa sistem hibrid FC/UC/BT beroperasi secara automatik dengan keadaan beban yang berbeza-beza. Keputusan eksperimen dibentangkan, ISSN -2506Siti Afiqah et al: ENERGY MANAGEMENT STRATEGY FOR A FUEL CELL/ULTRACAPASITOR/ BATTERY HYBRID SYSTEM FOR PORTABLE APPLICATIONS 956 menunjukkan bahawa strategi yang dicadangkan memanfaatkan ciri kedua-dua sumber kuasa tambahan dengan itu memenuhi keperluan beban.Kata kunci: Sel bahan api membran penukaran proton, ultrakapasitor, bateri, sistem tenaga hibrid, strategi pengurusan tenaga Introduction Research in the field of alternative/renewable energy sources increasingly become the ...