Optimal filtering of the fuel cell power probing signal for maximum power point robust adaptive tracking

The fuel cell power-current characteristic has a maximum power point (MPP), whose position in time depends on other parameters of fuel cell. The maximum energy conversion efficiency is obtained if fuel cell operates at MPP so a robust control for finding and tracking the current MPP is necessary. The extremum seeking control (ESC) allows the design of such adaptive control to track the current MPP using only the power probing signal (PPS). Usually the fuel cell supply an inverter system and the PPS is disturbed by noise. In this paper is proposed a band-pass filtering of the PPS for an optimal extraction of the power harmonics needed in a robust MPP tracking. The feasibility and effectiveness of this adaptive control is shown by simulation. The mathematical demonstration is included, too.