Online Control and Power Coordination Method for Multistack Fuel Cells System Based on Optimal Power Allocation

As the fuel cell systems (FCS) are increasingly used in high-power application areas, the power coordination method of multistack FCS is attracting ever-growing attention. In order to minimize the total energy consumption, this article proposes an optimal coordination method for multistack FCS. In this method, the efficiency distribution function of the entire multistack FCS can be obtained gradually based on the energy consumption model of each stack with different parameters. By finding the maximum of the efficiency function, the analytical solution of each stack's optimal power setpoint can be obtained. In addition, this method also takes the power range of each stack into consideration, and with the analytical solution above, the obtained power allocation coefficients matrices can be easily used in the online control. The RT-LAB platform simulation results show that, compared with other online methods, the proposed method reduces the overall FCS hydrogen consumption. The results of the experiments using 100-kW water-cooled stacks also verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.

Automated summary

This study proposed an optimal coordination method for multistack fuel cell systems by gradually obtaining the efficiency distribution function of the entire system based on the energy consumption model of each stack with different parameters. By considering the power range of each stack, the optimal power setpoint for each stack was found to reduce overall energy consumption and hydrogen consumption.