Research & Engineering

PEM fuel-cell control under variable demand

The doctoral research treated the fuel cell and its electrical load as one dynamic system rather than analyzing the stack in isolation. A dynamic PEM fuel-cell model was developed in Simulink and integrated with changing load demand to reproduce the interaction between electrochemical behavior, output voltage, reactant supply, and the power electronics connected to the stack.

The control problem became especially difficult near the concentration-loss region, where overdriving the fuel cell can make normal recovery ineffective and risk permanent damage. The thesis proposed a recovery/protection strategy for this regime as part of the wider control architecture.

Fuel-cell control conference work

An earlier conference publication, Control Strategy for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell Systems, was presented at the UKACC International Conference on Control in Glasgow. It addressed dynamic fuel-cell behavior, power regulation, and control of a system whose operating point changes with demand.

Photovoltaic sizing and life-cycle cost

Later energy work examined optimal PV sizing for a passive residential building in a Mediterranean climate. The surviving MATLAB implementation models hourly seasonal load profiles, solar generation over panel-count choices, energy bought from and sold to the grid, and life-cycle cost over the system horizon.

The code evaluates up to 50 panel-count choices, applies inverter efficiency and panel characteristics, calculates monthly grid exchange and annual savings, then combines system cost, operating/maintenance factors, salvage value, inflation, interest, and a 30-year horizon in the life-cycle-cost calculation.

Selected research records