Intelligent control for improvements in PEM fuel cell flow performance

The performance of fuel cells and the vehicle applications they are embedded into depends on a delicate balance of the correct temperature, humidity, reactant pressure, purity and flow rate. This paper successfully investigates the problem related to flow control with implementation on a single cell membrane electrode assembly (MEA). This paper presents a systematic approach for performing system identification using recursive least squares identification to account for the non-linear parameters of the fuel cell. Then, it presents a fuzzy controller with a simplified rule base validated against real time results with the existing flow controller which calculates the flow required from the stoichiometry value.