Design and Control of Fuel Cell management system with distributed supercapacitors storage element ; Conception et contrôle d'un système de gestion de piles à combustible avec des éléments de stockage distribués à supercondensateurs

A fuel cell is a device that directly converts the chemical energy of fuel (H₂) to electricity through two electrochemical reactions. It consists of two electrodes (anode and cathode), two bipolar plates, gas diffusion layers, and an electrolyte. For Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC), the electrolyte is a polymer membrane allowing protons transport from the anode to the cathode. It is sandwiched between two catalyst layers to form the Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA). Gas diffusion layers (GDL) allow the diffusion of hydrogen and oxygen from the channels machined in the bipolar plates to the catalyst layers. At the anode side, hydrogen splits into protons and electrons (hydrogen oxidation). Protons cross the membrane, and the electrons go from the anode to the cathode through the GDL and through an external circuit connected to the load. At the cathode, oxygen molecules react with electrons and protons to produce water (oxygen reduction reaction). Many factors affect the fuel cell performances such as materials, design, and operating conditions. Gas supply to the electrodes is one of the main operating parameters and it is strongly linked to water and thermal managements. Due to its high time response, gas flow also has a major influence on the fuel cell behavior during high frequency power variations, and gas starvation is one of the main mechanisms related to fuel cell degradations.As durability of PEMFC has a key role in the acceptance of it as a feasible power source, the objective of the thesis is to develop a fuel cell power source in order to reach better performances and to decrease the degradations related to the dynamic operations. The new power electronic architecture is based on a modular configuration in which the global fuel cell source is separated into several stacks each being composed with few cells.Each stack is connected to its own converter to form a modular system, and the output of several modular systems is connected in series to supply energy to the load. This configuration is ...