Development of a Controller For Fuel Cell Using FPGA

This thesis is a sample of what we can do to reduce the complexity of a fuel cell controller and research carried out in the modeling of a renewable energy sources like fuel cell. This thesis mainly deals the control of the fuel cell under variation of different parameters, and implementation of the system in VHDL. As we know that not any voltage source, weather it is traditional energy source or fuel cell system behaves as an ideal source. The output of these cells depends upon some parameter of the cell. To control the output voltage of a fuel cell we need some controller, it may be digital or analog. At the present time, PWM has become an integral part of all the electronic system. This technique has some salient feature, due to which it has replaced the traditional use of digitally just on off signal to control the switching action of the converter. There are two basic techniques of PWM generation, analog and digital. The disadvantages of the analog methods are that they are prone to noise, and they change with voltage and temperature change, they suffer changes due to component variation. To overcome the problem, associated with the analog technique, various types of digital technique are available. Implementation of these techniques in VHDL has done. First we have synthesized the whole system, using Matlab/Simulink then VHDL code for various topology of digital technique of PWM generation. After behavioral Simulation and verification of the results this VHDL code has downloaded to SPARTAN3E FPGA. After downloading the code in FPGA real time debugging has done for the architecture. The overall work done in this thesis aims to promote professional activity in the area of fuel cell controller and low power electronics used in the modern age, with an important focus on the design, development, simulation, and verification, and to examine the possibility of using Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) for the rapid prototyping of a PI+PWM digital electronic controller used in a power system consisting of a 2.4 kW 96 v fuel cell system, which is made up of two main component, fuel cell stack and boost converter