Dynamic Evaluation-Based Real-Time Coordinated Control Method for Multi-Stack Fuel Cell System Considering Lifetime Consistency

Abstract

With the global energy shortage and excessive carbon emissions, hydrogen energy has received significant attention as a key component of a carbon-neutral future, with fuel cells serving as a key component for hydrogen-to-power conversion. In high-powered applications like rail transportation and buildings, the multi-stack fuel cell system (MFCS) offers superior performance compared to a single-stack fuel cells system, providing advantages such as higher efficiency, stronger robustness, and longer lifetime. However, the efficiency, lifetime, and economy of MFCS are limited by the power distribution and performance of single-stack fuel cell, and the strong coupling between the performance of single-stack fuel cells and their actual power and voltage in real-time operation makes the energy management method of MFCS extremely complicated. The traditional strategies struggle to balance the various indexes in the MFCS and are limited in optimising individual indexes. To tackle this issue, this paper proposes a dynamic evaluation-based real-time coordinated control method for MFCS considering lifetime consistency. First, to comprehensively consider various indexes of the MFCS, a dynamic evaluation matrix (DEM) of the MFCS is established. The DEM consists of two essential components: the first is the dynamic performance evaluation matrix (DPEM), which thoroughly considers the impact of the performance variations in each single-stack fuel cell on the MFCS; and the other is the evaluation matrix pertaining to the efficiency, lifetime, and economy of the MFCS, which builds upon the DPEM and fully balances the mutual influences among the indexes. Then the objective function is established according to the DEM, and the GSSA algorithm is used for real-time optimisation. To demonstrate its effectiveness and advantages, the proposed method is applied in a hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulation system based on RT-LAB. The findings demonstrate that the proposed method facilitates comprehensiveoptimisation of the MFCS across efficiency, lifespan, and economic considerations. Furthermore, it realises the uniform lifetimes of each PEMFC and enhances the overall utilisation of the MFCS.