Abstract

In the future, the energy production will aim at more sustainable methods. Fuel cell technology is one alternative to the existing technology and its popularity in distributed energy systems comes from high efficiency, low risk to the environment, fast dynamic response, and its reliability and durability in different applications. It, however, requires a reliable source of pure hydrogen.

This report introduces first the production routes of different fuel cell systems. Next, models of steam reformer, WGS reactor and PEM fuel cell are shortly presented together with the integrated model of the whole fuel cell system. The model is then utilised in process identification and control development comparing PI-control with Model Predictive Control (MPC). Finally, the upper level optimisation using Differential Evolution (DE) is tested with simulations in Matlab® Simulink® and results of the control simulations are briefly discussed.