State-of-Health Observer for Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells

The polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) is a promising candidate for sustainable mobile applications but is prone to degradation. State-of-health observers assist in extending the lifetime by enabling online diagnosis. This work introduces a novel state-of-health observer simultaneously estimating the PEMFC gas composition (for degradation diagnosis) and a degradation-related time-varying parameter (to assess the state of health). It is based on an extended Kalman filter, and the modeling basis is a control-oriented PEMFC model. The validation is conducted via simulation where artificial degradation is considered, and the excellent estimation results of oxygen mass and ohmic membrane resistance are shown.