2015 International Conference on Recent Developments in Control, Automation and Power Engineering (RDCAPE)

MATLAB/Simulink Modeling and Analysis of

Parametric Effects on PEMFC Performance
1
Manoj Sharma, 2Rupendra Kumar Pachauri, 3S. K. Goel
1&3
Electrical Engineering Department, Faculty of Technology, UTU, Dehradun, India
2
Electrical Engineering Department, School of Engineering, GBU, Greater Noida, India
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract—In this paper, the mathematical analysis of proton are utilized as fuel and oxidizing agent respectively[4]. The
exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is discussed, which is catalyst is also used to maintain the reactants flow pressure in
helpful to investigate the behavior and modeling of PEMFC. For FC operation. From last one decade, PEMFC has considered
the investigation of parametric effects, some of the important more reliable and assuring among all other FCs because of its
operating parameters such as temperature, reactants flow various attractive features e.g. low operating temperature,
pressures (hydrogen and oxygen), membrane internal resistance compactness, low switching time and high power efficiency
etc. are considered. The parametric effects of considered also. The V-I characteristic of FC system is non linear, the
parameters are shown on V-I or polarization curve , which dynamic load and operating parameters varying condition
reflects the FC performance. Furthermore, the modeling of
always affects the V-I characteristics [5].
PEMFC system has been done using the MATLAB/Simulink
environment. For transient analysis of PEMFC power generation The PEMFC output voltage is very low approximately
unit, a resistive load is considered. 0.7V. Several FCs can be placed in series or parallel to form a
stack to provide high power. The power electronics interface is
Keywords— Proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), most necessary for FC operation with load applications. For
parametric effect, clean energy, renewable energy, hydrogen fuel. DC load applications, a DC-DC boost converter is required to
boost the voltage for DC load applications and a PWM inverter
I. INTRODUCTION is also used in this paper for considered AC load for transient
Today the demand of electrical energy is raising and it is analysis.
very essential in human life, due to various attractive
advantageous features of electrical energy, so its consumption II. SYSTEM DESCRIPTION
is exponentially growing in domestic as well as commercially. The system can be described in three major categories
Today, the human life is totally dependent on the fossil fuels namely (i) Fuel cell system, (ii) Power electronics interface
e.g. diesel, petrol, gas and coal etc. but the stored capacity of such as DC-DC converters and DC-AC PWM inverters (iii) A
all types of fossil fuels is limited and environmental effects are resistive load for transient analysis. The schematic diagram of
also high [1]. It is needed to explore more alternatives and proposed system is shown in Fig. 1 as,
reliable energy sources, which don't depend upon the
conventional fuels such as fossil fuels. These alternative energy
sources include power generation from wind, solar,
geothermal, biomass, mini hydro-power, ocean and tidal
energy etc. These alternative energy sources are also called
renewable energy (RE) sources [2]. The RE sources are more
acceptable and important due to their advantageous feature
such as easy availability, inexhaustible and zero pollution on
nature [3]. Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of proposed PEMFC power generation system.

FC technology has been emerged as favorable alternative The comparison of various types of FC technologies based
source of clean energy in the area of industrial and domestic on their operating parameters e.g. cell components, fuel used,
applications. In FC operation, the chemical energy is converted switching time, power density, efficiency, catalyst and
into electrical energy by means of a chemical reaction with the operating temperature is shown in Table I as,
help of an oxidizing agent. Generally, hydrogen and oxygen

TABLE I. COMPARISON OF FCS ON THE BASIS OF THEIR OPERATING PARAMETERS [6]

Fuel cell Cell Fuel used Switching Power density Efficiency Catalyst Operating
component time (KW/m2) (%) used Temp. (0C)
PEMFC Carbon H2, CH3OH Seconds 3.8 - 6.5 35 - 45 Platinum 60 - 100
AFC Carbon H2 Seconds ~ 1.0 40 - 50 Platinum 100 - 200
PAFC Graphite H2 Few minutes 0.8 - 1.9 50 - 60 Platinum 150 - 250
SOFC Stainless steel CO Few minutes 1.5 - 2.6 55 - 65 Nickel 500 - 700
MCFC Ceramic CO Few minutes 0.0 - 1.5 55 - 65 Perovskite 700 - 1000

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 2015 International Conference on Recent Developments in Control, Automation and Power Engineering (RDCAPE)

III. MODELING OF PEMFC

Oxygen flow pressure :
A. Mathematical modeling of PEMFC
mO2 RO2
The PEMFC voltage V fc can be expressed as in Eq. (1) as, PO2 = T (11)
Vca
V fc = E − Vact − Vconc − Vohm (1)
Water flow pressure :
Here, E represents the "Nernst voltage", which can be 1
calculated in Eq. (2) [6]. It is an open cell potential which is a
function of FC operating temperature and reactants flow PH 2 O =
(m ) H 2O
2
qH 2 O
(12)
pressure as, kanode
ª 1
º The current density of the FC can be calculated using Eq.
−3 §
E = E0 − 0.85 ×10 (T − 298.15) + ¨
RT · « PH PO( ) 2
» (2) (13) and shown as,
¸ log «
2 2
1 »
© 2F ¹ « PH 2 O ( P ) 2 »
¬ ¼ I fc
J= (13)
Where, Vact is the activation voltage drop which is A
represented in Eq. (3) [6, 7], also called "Tafel's equation" as, Where, J is the current density (A/cm2), I fc is FC current
(Amp) and A is area (cm2). Furthermore, FC efficiency can be
Vact = −0.9514 + 0.00312(T ) − 0.000187(T ) log I fc determined by Eq. (14) and shown as,
(3)
+7.4 × 10−5 (T ) log(Conc.O2 ) U f V fc
The concentration of O2 ( Conc.O 2 ) is calculated and Efficiency =
1.48 (14)
expressed in Eq. (4) as,
Where, U f is the fuel utilization factor, normally kept in
PO2
Conc.O 2 = (4) the range of 95% and 1.48 V represents the maximum FC
§ −498 · voltage ( V fc ) that can be calculated using the higher heating
5.08 × 106 ¨ e T ¸
© ¹ value (HHV) for the hydrogen enthalpy [9].
The concentration voltage drop ( Vconc ) can be defined as
the fast decrease in FC potential due to mass limitations as For the validation and analysis, the simulated model of
shown in Eq. (5) as, PEMFC is compared with the commercial available FC model
FC-H2-051C at specified operating parameters. For simulation
Vconc = ae(bI ) (5) of single FC model, all the parameters were considered from
literature. The specifications of designed PEMFC system is
The ohmic voltage ( Vohm ), membrane resistance ( Rmem ) and given in Table II as,
conductivity ( σ ) can be determined and expressed in Eq. (6)- TABLE II. SINGLE PEMFC PERFORMANCE [9]
(8) as,
Specifications FC-H2-051C Designed PEM
Vohm = I fc Rmem (6) of PEMFC (Mfd. By ARBIN fuel cell Model
INSTRUMENTS) for validation
tm Fuel cell area 5 cm2 5 cm2
Rmem = (7) Required fuel H2/O2 H2/O2
σ
§ 1 1· DC voltage 0.7 V 0.83 V
¨ − ¸ Current 3A 3.322 A
σ = (b11λ − b12 )e© 303 T¹
(8) Current density 600 mA/cm2 664.4 mA/cm2
Power rating 2W 2.75 W
Eq. (1) to (8) are utilized to estimate the single FC Cell efficiency 45 % at 2 W 53.34 % at 2.75 W
potential. The stack voltage is calculated in Eq. (9) [7] as, Operating temp. 70-80 °C 70-100 °C
Max. temp. 120 °C 120 °C
Vstack = NV fc (9)

The reactants flow pressure can be expressed in Eq. (10)- In this paper, the H2 and O2 pressure ( PH 2 , PO2 ) are taken
(12) [6-8] and shown as, constant for the operation of the FC. The operating parameters
used in this paper for modeling of PEMFC in
Hydrogen flow pressure :
MATLAB/Simulation are given in the appendix.
mH 2 RH 2
PH 2 = T (10) B. MATLAB/Simulink modeling of PEMFC
Van
MATLAB/Simulink modeling of PEMFC and compete
proposed system of PEMFC power generation unit with
resistive load application are shown in Fig. 2 and 3 as,

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 2015 International Conference on Recent Developments in Control, Automation and Power Engineering (RDCAPE)

Fig. 2. MATLAB/Simulink model of PEMFC.

Fig. 3. MATLAB/Simulink model of PEMFC power assisted AC load.

IV. POWER ELECTRONICS INTERFACE V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A. DC-DC boost converter • Parametric effects on V-I characteristics of
PEMFC
The utilization of power converter is very advantageous and
it reduces the cost of overall system and also minimizes the • Performance of PEMFC
number of FCs generating suitable DC power for load • Performance of power electronics interface
application. The duty ratio can be evaluated by the Eq. (15) [9] • Performance of the PEMFC system for resistive
as, load
V A. Parametric effects on PEMFC
DutyRatio = 1 − in (15)
Vout Parametric effects on V-I characteristics of PEMFC have
B. PWM Inverter been investigated with different values of operating parameters
e.g. at 50%, 100% and 150% of the operating parameters rated
The generated DC power is applied to the PWM inverter to values. For this investigation, reactants flow pressure of
assist AC load application. The PWM inverter consists of
insulated gate bipolar transistor which is current controlled ( ) ( )
hydrogen PH 2 and oxygen PO2 , membrane resistance
voltage source converter (CC-VSC) [10]. In this paper, the ( Rmem ) and temperature (Temp) are considered. In case of
operating carrier frequency for the converter is considered
1080 Hz. ( )
hydrogen reactant flow pressure PH 2 , it is observed that at the
highest value of PH 2 , the voltage and current are having high

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 2015 International Conference on Recent Developments in Control, Automation and Power Engineering (RDCAPE)

values, and shown in Fig. 4. In case second, at the highest best performance at its rated operating temperature value. The
value of oxygen reactant flow pressure PO2 = 150% , it is ( ) V-I performance is shown in Fig. 7 as,
observed that the voltage and current both are decreased. It 200
Temp = 50%
happened due to high concentration of oxygen at the cathode 175
side, so the reaction rate is decreased to the V-I performance, Temp = 100%
shown in Fig. 5 as, Temp = 150%

Voltage (V)
150

140 125
PH2 = 50%
100
120 PH2 = 100%
75
Voltage (V)

PH2 = 150%
100
50
0 2.5 5 7.5 10
80 Current (A)
Fig. 7. Effect of operating temp. on V-I characteristics.
60

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 B. Performance of PEMFC
Current (A)
For the analysis of PEMFC power generation, total
Fig. 4. Effect of H 2 reactant flow rate on V-I characteristics. numbers of 200 FCs are taken in series. The FC stack output
current is 3.32 A, voltage 166.085 V and power is 551.80 W,
140 The FC stack output current , voltage and power are shown in
P O2 = 50% Fig. 8(a)-(c) sequentially as,
120 P O2 = 100% 5

FC stack current (A)

Voltage (V)

P O2 = 150%
100 4.5
4
80
3.5
60 3
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 2.5
Current (A) 0 1 2 3 4
Time (Sec)
Fig. 5. Effect of O2 reactant flow rate on V-I characteristics. (a) Current (A)
190
In case third, at the lowest and highest value of membrane
FC stack voltage (V)

resistance (50,150%), it is observed that the voltage and current 180

both are in same range. Obviously there is little bit research
scope to investigate this issue also in near future. The V-I 170
performance is shown in Fig. 6 as,
140 160
Rmem = 50%

120 Rmem = 100% 150

0 1 2 3 4
Voltage (V)

Rmem = 150% Time (Sec)

100
(b) Voltage (V)
900
80
800
FC stack power (W)

60 700

2 4 6 8 10 12 14 600
Current (A) 500

Fig. 6. Effect of Rmem on V-I characteristics. 400

300
In case fourth, at the highest value of temperature (150%), 0 1 2 3 4
it is observed that the voltage and current both are in low range. Time (Sec)
And at the lowest value of temp it gave high voltage and (c) Power (W)
current. From this study, it is found that the PEMFC gives the Fig. 8. (a)-(c) FC stack output current, voltage and power.

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 2015 International Conference on Recent Developments in Control, Automation and Power Engineering (RDCAPE)

C. Performance of power electronics interface

DC-DC converter output voltage is 332V and PWM
inverter output voltage (332V) are shown in Fig. 9 and 10 as,
DC-DC converter output

600
voltage (V)

400

200

0 1 2 3 4 Fig. 13. THD analysis of load voltage.

Time (Sec)
Fig. 9. DC-DC converter output voltage (V)
VI. CONCLUSION
500 A study and investigation of PEMFC has been carried out.
The mathematical analysis of PEMFC with considered
PWM inverter
voltage (V)

reactants flow pressure and related Nernst equation etc. is well

0 presented. The comparison of various FCs on the basis of cell
components, fuel used, power density, switching time and
operating temperature etc. has been reported. Modeling of
-500 PEMFC power generation system has been done in
0 0.05 0.1 0.15 0.2 MATLAB/Simulink environment. For analysis performance
Time (Sec) evaluation, an AC resistive load is considered. The parametric
effects on PEMFC performance have been analyzed on the
Fig. 10. PWM inverter voltage (V) basis of V-I characteristics at different values of operating
parameters. The harmonic analysis and THD of load voltage is
D. Performance of the PEMFC system for resistive load also shown for power quality point of view.
For transient analysis, a resistive load is considered. The
load voltage (102.5V) and load current (4.85A) are shown in APPENDIX
Fig. 11 and 12. Furthermore, the THD analysis of load voltage
is calculated as 6.99, which reflect the power quality of the FC OPERATING PARAMETERS [12-14]
system, which is shown in Fig. 13 as, Vstack FC stack output voltage (166.085 V)
V fc FC voltage (0.83 V)
200
Load voltage (V)

I fc FC current (3.3224 A)
100
Pfc Power (551.80W)
0
N Number of FCs (200)
-100
E Nernst voltage (0.864 V)
-200 Vact Activation voltage drop (0.0331 V)
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 Vconc Concentration voltage drop (1.4377×10-5 V)
Time (Sec) Vohm Ohmic voltage drop (4.9346×10-4 V)
Fig. 11. Load voltage (V). Conc.O2 Concentration of O2 (0.2368 mol)
E0 Reference potential (0.9 V)
10 R Universal gas constant (8.314 Jmol-1 K-1)
Load current (A)

5 RH 2 H 2 gas constant (4.1243×10-3 Jmol-1 K-1)

0 RO2 O2 gas constant (259.8×10-3 Jmol-1 K-1)
-5 F Faraday constant (96,485 C mol-1)
T Operating temperature (353 K)
-10 P Fuel cell pressure (2.5 atm)
0 0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 Van Anode volume (0.005 m3)
Time (Sec) Vca Cathode volume (0.01 m3)
Fig. 12. Load current I abc (A). k anode Anode flow constant (0.004 mol s-1 atm-1)

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 2015 International Conference on Recent Developments in Control, Automation and Power Engineering (RDCAPE)

mH 2 Mass of H 2 at anode (2.016×10-3 kg mol-1) [4] R. F. Mann, et al., “Development and Application of a Generalised
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-3 -1 Power Sources, vol. 86, no.1, pp. 173-180, Jul. 2000.
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