Abstract: In systems development involving Fuel Cells generators, it is important to have from an early stage of the project a dynamic model for the electrical behavior of the stack to be shared between involved development parties. It allows independent and early design and tests of fuel cell related power electronic. This paper presents an empirical Fuel Cell system model derived from characterization tests on a real system. Moreover, it is illustrated how the obtained model is used to build and validate a real-time Fuel Cell system emulator which is used for aerospace electrical integration testing activities.
Abstract: This paper presents the modeling and simulation of a hybrid proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) with an energy storage system for use in a stand-alone distributed generation (DG) system. The simulation model consists of fuel cell DG, lead-acid battery, maximum power point tracking and power conditioning unit which is modeled in the MATLAB/Simulink platform. Poor loadfollowing characteristics and slow response to rapid load changes are some of the weaknesses of PEMFC because of the gas processing reaction and the fuel cell dynamics. To address the load-tracking issues in PEMFC, a hybrid PEMFC and battery storage system is considered and modelled. The model utilizes PEMFC as the main energy source whereas the battery functions as energy storage to compensate for the limitations of PEMFC.Simulation results are given to show the overall system performance under light and heavyloading conditions.