Computational modeling and polarization characteristics of proton exchange membrane fuel cell with evaluation of its interface systems

This paper presents a computational model of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack. The proposed model is simple and at the same time includes all the important phenomena present in the fuel cell. The fuel cell electrical output voltage and current (V-I) characteristic is described for the first time by a simplified closed form suitable for modeling and computation. The characteristics obtained through simulation are compared with the experimental results obtained on a commercial Ballard Nexa 310-0027 power module as well as to the manufacturer available data. Close agreement between the simulation, manufacturer and experimental results confirms the validity and usefulness of the proposed model. In addition, the paper explores several power interface options for fuel cell power generation systems and proposes a power conditioning unit composed of boost DC-DC converter cascaded sinusoidal PWM inverter.