• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• 제16권2호
• /
• pp.695-703
• /
• 2016

A fuel cell power conditioning system for online diagnosis and load leveling under the condition of varying load is developed in this study. The proposed system comprises a unidirectional boost converter and a bidirectional buck-boost converter with a battery. The system operates in two different modes. In normal mode, the bidirectional converter is utilized for load leveling; in diagnostic mode, it is utilized to control load voltage while the boost converter generates perturbation current to implement the online diagnosis function through in-situ electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS). The proposed method can perform EIS for a fuel cell under varying-load conditions with no influence on the load. The validity and feasibility of the proposed system are verified by experiments, and the design procedure of the proposed system is detailed.

• 대한기계학회논문집B
• /
• 제31권5호
• /
• pp.448-456
• /
• 2007

Performance of PEM fuel cell systems and hybrid systems combining a PEMFC with a gas turbine have been evaluated. Two different reforming methods(steam reforming and autothermal reforming) were considered. Performances of fuel cell systems with two reforming methods were compared and effects of various design parameters on the system performance were investigated. Configurations of PEM fuel cell systems with two reforming methods have been revised to accommodate a gas turbine, resulting in PEMFC/GT hybrid systems. Performance of the hybrid systems were analyzed and compared with those of PEM systems. Influences of major design parameters on the hybrid system performance were also investigated.

• 전기학회논문지
• /
• 제66권6호
• /
• pp.968-974
• /
• 2017

In this paper, modeling of brushless DC motor (BLDC) driving system for platform screen door control applied fuel cell power generation system has been proposed. At first the system configuration and operational principle of the developed fuel cell simulator has been investigated and the design of BLDC motor driving system is studied and the overall performance and dynamics of the proposed system could be effectively examined by simulation. PSIM simulation program is implemented to verify the performance and compatibility of the fuel cell power generation system and BLDC motor control system modeling.

• 한국태양에너지학회 논문집
• /
• 제32권6호
• /
• pp.106-112
• /
• 2012

As a fuel cell converts the chemical energy of the fuel cell into electrical energy by electrochemical reaction, the fuel cell system is uniquely integrated technique including fuel processor, fuel cell stack, power conditioning system. The residential fuel cell-PCS(Power Conditioning System) needs to convert efficiently the DC current produced by the fuel cell into AC current using single-phase DC-AC inverter. A single-phase DC-AC inverter has naturally low frequency ripple which is twice frequency of the output current. This low frequency(120Hz) ripple reduces the efficiency of the fuel cell. This paper presents notch filter with IP voltage controller to reject specific 120Hz current ripple in single-phase inverter. The notch filter is designed that suppress just only specific frequency component and no phase delay. Finally, the proposed notch filter design method has been verified with computer simulation and experimentation.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
• /
• 제33권3호
• /
• pp.226-231
• /
• 2022

Power converter are usually equipped for fuel cell power generation system to connect alternating current (AC) electric power grid. When converting direct current (DC) of fuel cell power source into AC, the power converter has a frequency ripple, which affects the fuel cell and the grid. Therefore, an equivalent circuit having dynamic characteristics of fuel cell power, for example, impedance, is useful for designing an inverter circuit. In this study, the current, voltage and impedance characteristics were calculated through fuel cell modeling and validated by comparing them with experiments. The equivalent circuit element values according to the current density were formulated into equations so that it could be applied to the circuit design. It is expected that the process of the equivalent circuit modeling will be applied to the actual inverter circuit design and simulated fuel cell power sources.

• 한국가스학회지
• /
• 제4권1호
• /
• pp.40-48
• /
• 2000

연료전지는 일정하게 유지되는 전극-전해질계의 공정에 의해 연료와 산화제의 화학에너지를 전기에너지로 끊임없이 전환시킬 수 있는 전기화학장치이다. 인산형 연료전지는 전해질로 진한 인산염을 사용한다. 연료전지 시스템에서 가장 중요한 부분인 스택은 연료의 산화가 일어나는 anode, 산화물의 환원이 일어나는 cathode, 그리고 anode와 cathode를 분리시키고 이온을 전도시키는 전해질로 이루어져 있다. 연료전지의 성능은 시스템의 환경에 따른 작동 및 디자인 변수들에 의해 좌우된다. 따라서 연료전지의 핵심부분이라 할 수 있는 스택의 성능향상을 위하여 전산유체역학 코드를 이용한 스택에 대한 3차원적 모델링 및 전기화학반응이 포함된 모사를 수행하였다. 이로부터 산화제의 유량변화에 따른 스택 내부에서의 연료, 산화제 및 생성물의 농도, 그리고 반응에 의해 생성된 열의 전달에 의한 스택의 온도 분포 및 변화를 전산유체 코드인 FLUENT를 이용하여 계산하였다.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
• /
• 제29권2호
• /
• pp.139-147
• /
• 2018

Korea Electric Power Research Institute (KEPCO RI) had developed molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) system since 1993. Finally, KEPCO RI developed and operated a 125 kW MCFC system in 2010. To make MCFC system compact, it is indispensable to install an ejector in this system where the anode off gas, the cathode off gas, and fresh air are mixed before flowing to the catalytic burner. KEPCO RI had developed various ejectors for MCFC system since 2006. The 125 kW MCFC system built with the developed ejector was operated successfully in Boryeong Thermal Power Plant in 2010. This 125 kW MCFC ejector was designed on the basis of the experimental results of 5 kW and 75 kW MCFC ejectors. The main goal of ejector design in our MCFC system is to maintain the entrainment ratio and the pressure between fuel cell stack and catalytic burner within the operating range. In this paper, the design results of the ejector are presented based on the 125 kW MCFC system operating conditions. In addition, a designed ejector was manufactured and installed in the MCFC system. As the fuel cell is under load operation, the pressure surrounding the ejector was measured to ensure that the fuel cell system is operating smoothly.

• Journal of Power Electronics
• /
• 제11권2호
• /
• pp.194-201
• /
• 2011

The air flow supplied to a fuel cell system is one of the most significant factors in determining fuel efficiency. The conventional method of controlling the air flow is to fix the oxygen supply at an estimated constant rate for optimal efficiency. However, the actual optimal point can deviated from the pre-set value due to temperature, load conditions and so on. In this paper, the maximum efficiency point tracking (MEPT) algorithm is proposed for finding the optimal air supply rate in real time to maximize the net-power generation of fuel cell systems. The fixed step MEPT algorithm has slow dynamics, thus it affects the overall efficiency. As a result, the variable step MEPT algorithm is proposed to compensate for this problem instead of a fixed one. The complete small signal model of a PEM Fuel cell system is developed to perform a stability analysis and to present a design guideline. For a design example, a 1kW PEM fuel cell system with a DSP 56F807 (Motorola Inc) was built and tested using the proposed MEPT algorithm. This control algorithm is very effective for a soft current change load like a grid connected system or a hybrid electric vehicle system with a secondary energy source.

• 전기화학회지
• /
• 제13권3호
• /
• pp.193-197
• /
• 2010

In terms of the system efficiency, it is very useful to apply the ejector into the fuel recirculation system of a fuel cell system since the ejector needs no parasitic power to operate. Since the conventional automotive fuel cell use hydrogen and air as their fuel, the only hydrogen is needed to be recirculated for the better fuel efficiency. On the other hand, the submarine fuel cell needs both hydrogen and oxygen recirculation systems because the submarine drives under the sea. In particular, the cathodic recirculation has to meet the tougher target since the oxygen based pressurized stack generally used in the submarine applications generates the significant amount of the water in the stack during the operation. Namely, the oxygen utilization has designed less than 50% in the whole operating range for the better exhausting of the generated waters. And thereby in terms of the oxygen utilization, the entrainment ratio of the ejector should be more than 1 within the whole operating range. However, the conventional ejector using a constant nozzle can not afford to satisfy the mentioned critical requirement. To overcome the problem, the dual-ejector and its control strategy are designed. The performance of the proposed dual-ejector is verified by the experiments based on the real operating conditions of the target submarine system. Furthermore, the proposed design method can be used for the other fuel recirculation system of a large-scale fuel cell system with the critical requirement of the fuel utilization.

• 한국수소및신에너지학회논문집
• /
• 제24권1호
• /
• pp.50-60
• /
• 2013

High temperature proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) using phosphoric acid (PA) doped polybenzimidazole (PBI) membranes have been concentrated as one of solutions to the limits with traditional low temperature PEMFCs. However, the amount of reported experimental data is not enough to catch the operational characteristics correlated with cell performance and durability. In this study, design of experiments (DOE) based operational optimization method for high temperature PEMFCs has been proposed. Response surface method (RSM) is very useful to effectively analyze target system's characteristics and to optimize operating conditions for a short time. Thus RSM using central composite design (CCD) as one of methodologies for design of experiments (DOE) was adopted. For this work, the statistic models which predict the performance and degradation rate with respect to the operating conditions have been developed. The developed performance and degradation models exhibit a good agreement with experimental data. Compared to the existing arbitrary operation, the expected cell lifetime and average cell performance during whole operation could be improved by optimizing operating conditions. Furthermore, the proposed optimization method could find different new optimal solutions for operating conditions if the target lifetime of the fuel cell system is changed. It is expected that the proposed method is very useful to find optimal operating conditions and enhance performance and durability for many other types of fuel cell systems.