Parameter estimation of proton exchange membrane fuel cell using a novel meta-heuristic algorithm.

In recent years, proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) have been known to be a viable method for meeting the electrical energy needs, thereby enhancing the overall reliability of renewable energy systems. PEMFCs demonstrate various promising attributes like pollution-free, totally sustainable, non-self-discharging. These need hydrogen as fuel, and air for their operation, while the final product is pure water only. Thus, under varying operating conditions, the appropriate modeling and parameter optimization of PEMFCs have gained considerable importance in recent times. The evolutionary optimization approaches had been utilized in recent past for estimating PEMFCs parameters as exact modeling of the same does not exist in the literature. For the evaluation of PEMFCs performance criteria, a newly proposed algorithm is developed in this manuscript i.e. black widow optimization (BWO). Firstly, the performance of this proposed algorithm is checked by complex benchmark results. After that, this proposed algorithm is applied to extract the parameters of PEMFCs models under different operating temperatures. The parameter optimization results are obtained using BWO and are further compared with those obtained with five other algorithms, i.e., particle swarm optimization (PSO), multi-verse optimizer (MVO), sine cosine algorithm (SCA), whale optimization algorithm (WOA), and grey wolf optimization (GWO). The complete error analysis is carried out for the two data sheets of the PEMFCs to establish the superiority of BWO. It has been observed that the developed proposed algorithm gives better results when compared to those obtained with rest of the algorithms considered in this work. After calculating the error, non-parametric test is performed which suggests that the BWO is better than the rest of the compared algorithms.

Hydrogen fuel and fuel cell technology for cleaner future: a review.

One of the main problems facing our planetary bodies is unexpected and sudden climate change due to continuously increasing global energy demand, which currently is being met by fossil fuels. Hydrogen is considered as one of the major energy solutions of the twenty-first century, capable of meeting future energy needs. Being 61a zero-emission fuel, it could reduce environmental impacts and craft novel energy opportunities. Hydrogen through fuel cells can be used in transport and distributed heating, as well as in energy storage systems. The transition from fossil-based fuels to hydrogen requires intensive research to overcome scientific and socio-economic barriers. The purpose of this paper is to reflect the current state, related issues, and projection of hydrogen and fuel elements within the conceptual framework of 61a future sustainable energy vision. An attempt has been made to compile in this paper the past hydrogen-related technologies, present challenges, and role of hydrogen in the future.