Fuel Cell Hybrid Systems

Abstract

The control of fuel cell systems was studied in Chaps. 3, 6 analyzing the system composed by the fuel cell stack and its auxiliary subsystems (e.g., compressor, valves, etc.), with the following objectives: achieve high efficiency, reduce the hydrogen consumption, improve the dynamic behavior and guarantee its safe operation. We continue in this chapter and Chap. 8 with the study of fuel cell-based systems approaching the fuel cell hybrid systems with some energy storage. Hybridization has important advantages in fuel cell hybrid vehicles (FCHV), a fuel cell application that is central in this book. Therefore, the process of designing a hybrid system, or methodology of design, is addressed in this chapter. We concentrate our attention on FCHVs because this application is particularly attractive, although some general aspects studied in this chapter also apply to other applications such as stand-alone residential PEM fuel cell power systems.