Sliding-Mode Control of PEM Fuel Cells

Recent advances in catalysis technologies and new materials make fuel cells an economically appealing and clean energy source with massive market potential in portable devices, home power generation and the automotive industry. Among the more promising fuel-cell technologies are proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs).

Sliding-mode Control of PEM Fuel Cells demonstrates the application of higher-order sliding-mode control to PEMFC dynamics. Fuel-cell dynamics are often highly nonlinear and the text shows the advantages of sliding modes in terms of robustness to external disturbance, modelling error and system-parametric disturbance using higher-order control to reduce chattering.

Divided into two parts, the book first introduces the theory of fuel cells and sliding-mode control. It begins by contextualising PEMFCs both in terms of their development and within the hydrogen economy and today’s energy production situation as a whole. The reader is then guided through a discussion of fuel-cell operation principles, the mathematical background of high-order sliding-mode control and to a feasibility study for the use of sliding modes in the control of an automotive fuel stack.

Part II presents experimental results of sliding-mode-control application to a laboratory fuel cell and deals with subsystem-based modelling, detailed design, and observability and controllability. Simulation results are contrasted with empirical data and performance, robustness and implementation issues are treated in depth. Possibilities for future research are also laid out.

The state-of-the-art research in nonlinear control of fuel cells presented in this volume will be of interest to academics and graduate students working in nonlinear control and sliding modes, particularly those studying fuel-cell systems. Control engineers and designers working with fuel-cell technology in industrial environments can also find new ideas and inspiration from reading Sliding-mode Control of PEM Fuel Cells.