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Modelling and control of Fuel Cell Inverter

System
Himanshi Chauhan1, Upendra SinghTomar2,Narottam Dutt Upadhyay3
M.Tech Scholar, Dept. of EE, VITM, Gwalior, India1
Asst. Professor, Dept. of EE, VITM, Gwalior, India 2
Asst. Professor, Dept. of EE, VITM, Gwalior, India 3

ABSTRACT: In this paper, the boost-inverter topology is used as a building block for a single-phase grid-connected
fuel cell (FC) system offering low cost and compactness. In addition, the proposed system incorporates battery-based
energy storage and a dc–dc bidirectional converter to support the slow dynamics of the FC. The single-phase boost
inverter is voltage-mode controlled and the dc–dc bidirectional converter is current-mode controlled. The low-
frequency current ripple is supplied by the battery which minimizes the effects of such ripple being drawn directly from
the FC itself. Moreover, this system can operate either in a grid-connected or stand-alone mode. In the grid- connected
mode, the boost inverter is able to control the active (P) and reactive (Q) powers using an algorithm based on a second-
order generalized integrator which provides a fast signal conditioning for single-phase systems. Design guidelines,
simulation, and experimental results taken from a laboratory prototype are presented to confirm the performance.

KEYWORDS: BOOST INVERTER, FUEL CELL, GRID-CONNECTED INVERTER, POWER CONDITIONING SYSTEM (PCS), PQ
CONTROL.

I. INTRODUCTION

A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that converts the chemical energy of the fuel (hydrogen) into electrical
energy. It is centered on a chemical reaction between the fuel and the oxidant (generally oxygen) to produce
electricity where water and heat are byproducts. This conversion of the fuel into energy takes place without
combustion. Generally, efficiency of the fuel cells ranges from 40-60% and can be improved to 80-90% in
cogeneration applications. The waste heat produced by the lower temperature cells is undesirable since it cannot be
used for any application and thus limits the efficiency of the system. The higher temperature fuel cells have higher
efficiency since the heat produced can be used for heating purposes.
The fuel cell is an important technology for new mobile applications and power grid distribution systems. For power
distribution, fuel cell system requires a grid interconnection converter to supply power to the power grid. A grid
interconnection converter using an isolation transformer is preferable for power grid distribution systems in terms of
surge protection and noise reduction. In addition, size reduction and high efficiency are essential requirements. One of
the problems in the fuel cell system is that the lifetime is decreased by the ripple current. Therefore, in order to extend
the lifetime, the fuel cell ripple current must be reduced in the grid interconnection converter. However, when a
single-phase pulse width-modulated (PWM) inverter is used for grid connection system, the power ripple is twice the
frequency of the power grid. For Example, from the current–voltage characteristics of a 72-cell proton exchange
membrane FC (PEMFC) power module, the voltage varies between 39 and 69 V. Moreover, the hydrogen and oxidant
cannot respond the load current changes instantaneously due to the operation of components such as pumps, heat
exchangers, and fuel- processing unit. Thus, the slow dynamics of the FC must be taken into account when designing
FC systems. This is crucial, especially when the power drawn from the FC exceeds the maximum permissible power,
as in this case, the FC module may not only fail to supply the required power to the load but also cease to operate or

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be damaged. Therefore, the power converter needs to ensure that the required power remains within the maximum
limit.
.
II. PROPOSED FC ENERGYSYSTEM

A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts a source fuel into an electrical current. It generates electricity inside
a cell through reactions between a fuel and an oxidant, triggered in the presence of an electrolyte. The reactants flow
into the cell, and the reaction products flow out of it, while the electrolyte remains within it. Fuel cells can operate
continuously as long as the necessary reactant and oxidant flows are maintained. Fuel cells are different from
conventional electrochemical cell batteries in that they consume reactant from an external source, which must be
replenished[1]– a thermodynamically open system. By contrast, batteries store electrical energy chemically and hence
represent a thermodynamically closed system. Many combinations of fuels and oxidants are possible. A hydrogen fuel
cell uses hydrogen as its fuel and oxygen (usually from air) as its oxidant. Other fuels include hydrocarbons and
alcohols. Other oxidants include chlorine and chlorine dioxide fuel cells come in many varieties; however, they all
work in the same general manner. They are made up of three segments which are sandwiched together: the anode, the
electrolyte, and the cathode. Two chemical reactions occur at the interfaces of the three different segments. The net
result of the two reactions is that fuel is consumed, water or carbon dioxide is created, and an electrical current is
created, which can be used to power electrical devices, normally referred to as the load. At the anode a catalyst oxidizes
the fuel, usually hydrogen, turning the fuel into a positively charged ion and a negatively charged electron. The
electrolyte is a substance specifically designed so ions can pass through it, but the electrons cannot. The freed electrons
travel through a wire creating the electrical current. The ions travel through the electrolyte to the cathode. Once
reaching the cathode, the ions are reunited with the electrons and the two react with a third chemical, usually oxygen, to
create water or carbon dioxide.

Fig 1. Proposed Block Diagram.

In this block diagram the models backup unit and the FC power module are connected in the unregulated dc bus and the
boost-inverter output is connected to the local load and the grid. The representation of the power are mentioned as
follows,
P1: FC output power
P2: backup unit input/output power,
P3: inverter output power
P4: power between the inverter and the grid and
P5: power to the ac loads.

Fuel cells
Fuel cells are also well used for distributed generation applications, and can essentially be described as batteries which
never become discharged as long as hydrogen and oxygen are continuously provided. The hydrogen can be supplied
directly, or indirectly produced by reformer from fuels such as natural gas, alcohols, or gasoline. Each unit ranges in
size from 1-250 kW or larger MW size. Even if they offer high efficiency and low emissions, today's costs are high.

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Phosphoric acid fuel cell is commercially available in the range of the 200 kW, while solid oxide and molten carbonate
fuel cells are in a pre- commercial stage of development. The possibility of using gasoline as a fuel for cells has
resulted in a major development effort by the automotive companies. The recent research work about the fuel cells is
focused towards the polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) fuel cells. Fuel cells in sizes greater than 200 kW, hold
promise beyond 2005, but residential size fuel cells are unlikely to have any significant market impact any time soon.
Fig.1 shows a block diagram of fuel cell system which consists of a reformer, fuel cell stack and a PCU. Moreover, the
scalability of fuel cells has allowed for applications in almost every field. Fuel cell systems can be easily placed at any
site in a power system for grid reinforcement, thereby deferring or eliminating the need for system upgrades and
improving system integrity, reliability, and efficiency. Therefore, proper controllers need to be designed for a fuel cell
system to make its performance characteristics as desired. Development of a standalone, reduced-order, dynamic model
of fuel cell power plant connected to a distribution grid via dc/ac converter. The proposed model includes the
electrochemical and thermal aspects of chemical reactions inside the fuel-cell stack but the dynamics model of DC/DC
and DC/AC Converters are not considered. A novel hierarchical control architecture for a hybrid distributed generation
system that consists of dynamic models of a battery bank, a solid oxide fuel cell and power electronic converter has
been presented. The fuel cell power plant is interfaced with the utility grid and a three phase pulse width modulation
(PWM) inverter. A validated SOFC dynamic model used in this project.

Fig 2. Basic Layout of FC System

III. BOOST INVERTER

Boost dc–ac inverter naturally generates in a single stage an ac voltage whose peak value can be lower or greater than
the dc input voltage. The main drawback of this structure deals with its control. Boost inverter consists of Boost dc– dc
converters that have to be controlled in a variable- operation point condition. The sliding mode control has been
proposed as an option. However, it does not directly control the inductance averaged-current. This paper proposes a
control strategy for the Boost inverter in which each Boost is controlled by means of a double-loop regulation scheme
that consists of a new inductor current control inner loop and an also new output voltage control outer loop. These
loops include compensations in order to cope with the Boost variable operation point condition and to achieve a high
robustness to both input voltage and output current disturbances. As shown by simulation and prototype experimental
results, the proposed control strategy achieves a very high reliable performance, even in difficult transient situations
such as nonlinear loads, abrupt load changes, short circuits, etc.

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Fig3. Circuit diagram for boost inverter

Control Scheme
A double-loop control scheme is chosen for the boost- inverter control being the most appropriate method to control the
individual boost converters covering the wide range of operating points. This control method is based on the averaged
continuous-time model of the boost topology and has several advantages with special conditions that may not be
provided by the sliding mode control, such as nonlinear loads, abrupt load variations, and transient short- circuit
situations. Using this control method, the inverter maintains a stable operating condition by means of limiting the
inductor current. Because of this ability to keep the system under control even in these situations, the inverter achieves
a very reliable operation. The reference voltage of the boost inverter is provided from the PQ control algorithm being
able to control the active and reactive power. The voltages across C1 and C2 are controlled to track the voltage
references using proportional-resonant (PR) controllers. Compared with the conventional proportional integral (PI)
controller, the PR controller has the ability to minimize the drawbacks of the PI one such as lack of tracking a
sinusoidal reference with zero steady-state error and poor disturbance.
IGBT
IGBT is a three-terminal power semiconductor device, noted for high efficiency and fast switching. It switches electric
power in many modern appliances: electric cars, trains, variable speed refrigerators, air-conditioners and even stereo
systems with switching amplifiers. Since it is designed to rapidly turn on and off, amplifiers that use it
The IGBT is a semiconductor device with four alternating layers (P-N-P-N) that are controlled by a metal-oxide-
semiconductor (MOS) gate structure without regenerative action.

IV.SIMULATION OF SOFC AND PQ CONTROL

SIMULATION OF SOFC
The ac real power injection into the utility grid is considered to be the reference power for the fuel cell. The stack voltage
and the reference power are used to determine the reference current which in turn is used to determine the fuel cell stack
current. The fuel flow is proportional to the stack current. The partial pressure of hydrogen, oxygen and water are
determined using the flow rates of hydrogen and oxygen. The IGBT combines the simple gate-drive characteristics of
the MOSFETs with the high-current and low– saturation- voltage capability of bipolar transistors by combining an
isolated gate FET for the control input, and a bipolar power transistor as a switch, in a single device. The IGBT is used
in medium- to high-power applications such as switched- mode power supply, traction motor control and induction
heating. Large IGBT modules typically consist of many devices in parallel and can have very high current handling
capabilities in the order of hundreds of amperes with blocking voltages of 6000 V, equating to hundreds of Kilowatts.
The IGBT is a fairly recent invention. The first- generation devices of the 1980s and early 1990s were relatively slow
in switching, and prone to failure through such modes as latch up (in which the device won't turn off as long as current
is flowing) and secondary breakdown (in which a localized hotspot in the device goes into thermal runaway and burns
the device out at high currents). Second- generation devices were much improved, and the current third-generation ones

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are even better, with speed rivaling MOSFETs, and excellent ruggedness and tolerance of overloads. The extremely
high pulse ratings of second- and third- generation devices also make them useful for generating large power pulses in
areas like particle and plasma physics, where they are starting to supersede older devices like thyratrons and triggered
spark gaps. Their high pulse ratings, and low prices on the surplus market, also make them attractive to the high-
voltage hobbyist for controlling large amounts of power to drive devices such as solid-state Tesla coils and coil guns.
Availability of affordable, reliable IGBTs is an important enabler for electric vehicles and hybrid cars. The stack voltage
is based on the Nernst Equation which depends on the stack current and the partial pressures of the gas. Observation of
the H2, H20 and O2 pressures shows that the fuel cell does not reach a new equilibrium for the simulation of duration 1
second. Extended simulation periods are required to observe the dynamics of the chemical reaction.

Fig 4. Equivalent circuit for IGBT

PQ Control
The control scheme proposed in this thesis is the decoupled PQ control. This controller controls the phase angle and
amplitude of the voltage across the transformer. The difference in the phase angle between the voltage across the
transformer and the utility side voltage determines the direction of the real and reactive power flow. Since the phase
angle on the utility side is zero, phase angle of the voltage across the transformer determines the direction of the power
flow. This control is basically a real power control since the reactive power is assumed to be zero.
The figure consists of various sub blocks to be dealt with, apart from the P-Q controller. The line-line voltage across the
transformer and the utility side are measured from the system to calculate the real and reactive power flow. The P- Q
controller compares the actual values with the reference real and reactive powers to obtain the phase angle of the
transformer voltage and the modulation index, respectively. These control variables are used to determine the duty cycle
control signals which when compared with the triangular wave, produce the switching signals for the inverter. This
subsection consists of the real and reactive power calculation and the decoupled P and Q controller. The line- line
voltage on the utility side (VLL rmsu) and the transformer (VLL rmst) are measured from the system. The real and
reactive power flows are given by Equations.

(∅ )
=

− (∅ )
= ( )

Where φi is the phase angle of the voltage on the inverter side and Lt is the leakage inductance of the transformer. For
calculation purposes, the transformer is considered to be ideal; hence the angle lag due to Y- Y connection is neglected.
The P-Q controller basically consists of PI controllers to control the phase angle and the modulation index. The main
requirement for the inverter switching signals is the phase angle and amplitude of the inverter voltage. Figure 3 shows
the real and reactive power control system. The real power flow is given by Equation (8). The voltages and the
reactance terms are more or less constant. The real power is directly proportional to the phase angle if the angle is small.
Hence the real power flow can be used to control the phase angle of the inverter. Reactive power flow controls the
amplitude of the transformer voltage. The error between the reference and the measured real power is fed into a PI

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controller to control the phase angle of the inverter as shown in the figure below. The inverter voltage, in turn, depends
on the reactive power. The error between the reference and the measured reactive power is fed into the PI controller. The
control of the transformer voltage is proportional to the control of the inverter voltage.ge is used to determine the
amplitude of the modulation signals.

Fig 6. Control Diagram for Real and Reactive Power

V. SIMULATION CIRCUIT ANDRESULTS

Main block simulation Diagram of Grid – connected FC system.

Fig 7. Main block simulation Diagram for Grid – connected FC system

Fig 8. Current waveforms of L1 and L2

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Fig 9.Simulation results for Voltage and Current

Fig 10. Load Curves

Fig 11.Inverter output voltage Vo, grid voltage Vg, and current through the inductor Lf

Fig 12. Active and Reactive Powers

Fig 13. Measured Active and Reactive Powers

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Fig 14.Output voltages of the boost inverter (V1, V2, and Vo) and dc input voltage, Vin

V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURESCOPE

Conclusion
Single-phase single power stage grid-connected FC system based on the boost-inverter topology with a backup
battery based energy storage unit is proposed in this paper. The simulation results and selected laboratory tests
verify the operation characteristics of the proposed FC system. In summary, the proposed FC system has a number
of attractive features, such as single power conversion stage with high efficiency, simplified topology, low cost, and
able to operate in standalone as well as in grid connected mode.

Future Scope
The fuel cell system developed in this thesis can be modified for improving the applicability of the system. In this
thesis, the thermodynamic effect of the fuel cell has not been considered. Future work can involve inclusion of
thermodynamic equations.
The performance of the stack voltage with and without the temperature effect can be obtained and its overall effect on
the load. In this thesis, an infinite bus has been modelled for utility grid. The work can be further extended to a higher
order bus system. Different placements of the fuel cell unit can be studied and analyzed. The performance of multiple
units at multiple locations can also be studied. The performance of the fuel cell can also be tested by carrying out
short circuit studies.

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