A novel fuel cell cathode hybrid intake structure design and control for integrated hydrogen energy utilization system

Journal article, 2024

The typical Integrated Hydrogen Energy Utilization System (IHEUS) does not recycle oxygen. For maximizing the system's efficiency, this study proposes a method for recycling byproduct oxygen in a Fuel Cell (FC) hybrid cathode intake structure and its control. By introducing the pure oxygen produced as a byproduct of hydrogen production into the FC, a hybrid cathode intake structure is formed with the air branch. To control this structure, models of the oxygen and air branch, and the FC stack are established. Subsequently, using BiLSTM network to learn historical data and extract relevant features, the output power demand of the FC system is predicted. Based on the prediction results, the required gas flow is calculated, and a fuzzy PID control strategy is employed to adjust the opening of the solenoid valve to change the gas flow to meet the demand. Finally, comparative studies show that our FC system, operating in a pure oxygen state, outperforms conventional air intake design: heat production increases by 13 %, electric efficiency improves by 20 %, and pure water savings reach 65.57 %. The air compressor witnesses a substantial 37.63 % reduction in power consumption, contributing to an overall energy efficiency increase of 8.92 % for the IHEUS.