Improving the operation of multi-stack PEM fuel cell systems to increase efficiency, durability and lifespan while reducing ageing
Résumé
Dihydrogen, a clean energy vector, faces commercial challenges due to the low durability of proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs). Multi-stack fuel cell (MFC) systems offer a potential solution, albeit with the need for effective energy management. However, existing studies focus solely on fuel consumption, overlooking crucial factors such as efficiency, durability, and lifespan. This paper proposes design and power optimization strategies. Our sizing strategy achieves cost-effective system designs, potentially saving up to 30 % in MFC system lifetime costs by considering factors such as durability and consumption. The fault-tolerant online power management system (PMS) maximizes system efficiency, durability, and longevity while minimizing fuel consumption. It enhances systems performance and addresses reconfiguration challenges by formulating electro-chemical ageing as a novel convex technico economic optimization problem, potentially extending heterogenous MFC systems lifetimes by up to . These strategies are applicable across various fuel cell (FC) technologies with different power ratings.