Oxygen excess ratio control of PEM fuel cell: fractional order modeling and fractional filter IMC-PID control

Abstract Concerning global warming, an energy-efficient power source must produce low or no pollutant emissions and provide an unlimited fuel supply. Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is an electrochemical device that transforms chemical energy into electrical energy. The performance and durability of PEM fuel cells are affected by voltage reversals and fuel starvation. Oxygen Excess Ratio (OER) is a crucial factor in controlling the fuel starvation of the PEMFC system. First, this work identified the PEMFC as an integer order and fractional-order first order plus time delay models using the predictor error method and Grunwald–Letnikov simulation method based on a trust-region-reflect algorithm, respectively. Fractional order models more accurately represented the PEM fuel cell system dynamics. Then, robust fractional filters cascaded with PID controllers based on the Internal Model Control scheme (IMC) are designed for identified integer and fractional order models to regulate the OER by compressor voltage manipulation. The genetic Algorithm (GA) optimization technique is used to find the optimal fractional filter tuning parameters. The proposed controller’s performance regarding Integral Absolute Error (IAE) and Total Variance (TV) is analyzed. Furthermore, the robustness of a perturbed plant and fragility with perturbed controllers are elucidated. The results show that a fractional filter cascaded with fractional order PID controller improves the performance compared to a fractional filter cascaded with integer order PID controllers.