Proton exchange membrane fuel cell modules for ship applications

Abstract

In this article, we proposed a more reliable architecture composed of five fuel cell modules (FC), a storage system composed of battery and supercapacitor was also proposed to support the operation of the fuel cell. The main objective of this work is to study the feasibility of using the global system for small marine applications. In this paper, the global system was modeled and then simulated using Matlab/Simulink. The fuel cell is used as the main power source; each fuel cell is connected with a DC bus via a DC–DC boost converter. The Energy Storage System (HESS) is controlled as a fast-bidirectional auxiliary power source, it contains a battery and supercapacitors and each source is connected to the DC bus via a bidirectional buck-boost DC–DC converter (BBDCC). In order to optimize the HESS, the supercapacitors and the batteries are designed to allow high-efficiency operation and minimal weight. The entire system’s energy management algorithm (PMA) is developed to satisfy the energy demand of the boat. Finally, simulation tests are presented in Matlab/Simulink and discussed, where the effectiveness of the proposed system with its control is confirmed.