Review of System Integration and Control of Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

Proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) as power systems have been widely studied in various application fields because of advantages such as cleanness and high efficiency with great progress having been made in the past decades both technologically and fundamentally. Despite the many promising developments however, technical challenges remain in terms of performance and lifespans. This is because PEMFCs are complex systems composed of various components and factors such as material property, engineering design and operating conditions can interact with each other to affect lifespans and performance. To fully understand the coupling effects of different factors on the overall performance and durability of PEMFCs, this review will comprehensively present existing research based on four aspects, including fuel cell stacks, subsystems, system integration and control strategy optimizations. First, this review will outline fuel cell stacks with their multi-physics modeling and engineering design to provide an understanding of the operating mechanisms inside PEMFC reactors. Following this, the progress of research into the structure and function of each subsystem is summarized and integration schemes for different applications are briefly presented. Finally, various control strategies for individual PEMFC subsystems to optimize energy management and dynamic performance are discussed.