The Robust Maximum Power Control of DMFC Generating Systems

In this article, maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control for high efficient direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) generating systems is presented via a new maximum power point (MPP) searching algorithm and a Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model-based control approach. In detail, the output power generation of DMFC is extracted through a DC/DC boost converter, where an incremental resistance method (IRM) is developed to search for the MPP of the DMFC under various conditions. Based on the T-S fuzzy modeling of the DC/DC boost converter, the T-S fuzzy MPPT controller considering uncertainty and disturbance is proposed to track the reference MPP of the DMFC. Moreover, the controller gains are obtained via linear matrix inequality (LMI) techniques so that the design is easily implemented. Finally, the satisfactory performance is shown by several experiments.