Using Maximum Power Capability of Fuel Cell in Direct Methanol Fuel Cell / Battery Hybrid Power System

Abstract

Considering limited ability of Direct Methanol Fuel cell (DMFC) systems to produce power and importance of optimum methanol consumption, it is necessary to provide conditions, in which, the maximum power of DMFC from present fuel flow can be utilized. But, in different conditions, maximum power point (MPP) of DMFC is a unique point. So, operating point should be determined based on DMFC conditions, and load requirements are not taken into account. This means that, output voltage will not be fixed if load resistance varies. In this paper, a new control scheme for DMFC/Battery hybrid power system is proposed and analyzed. In the proposed system, a MPP tracking controller searches for MPP of DMFC in any operating conditions. Moreover, a battery charge controller is utilized to keep the battery voltage in its permissible limits. So, in the proposed scheme, MPP operation of DMFC and output voltage regulation can be achieved concurrently.

Direct methanol fuel cell systems with tri-stage energy management and maximum power point tracking

“…This phenomenon has been found in [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] so that conducting the MPPT method fosters the DMFCs to approach MEP. In this paper, perturbation-and-observation method has been applied for maximum power point tracking, which has the advantage of simple implementation and low complexity.…”