Method for controlling a fuel cell system having a hydrogen fuel injector/ejector

A method of operating a fuel cell system having a hydrogen fuel injector/ejector, an anode, a proportional-integral-adaptive (PIA) controller operatively associated with the injector/ejector, a control system and a non-volatile memory associated with the control system, comprising:

• operating the fuel cell system at a power level for a predetermined time;
• determining a hydrogen fuel consumption rate {dot over (n)}TrsntConsum associated with the power level;
• obtaining a modeled hydrogen fuel flow rate {dot over (n)}injSp_Model associated with the selected power level and the injector/ejector;
• finding an anode leak rate {dot over (n)}Leak_Model of the anode, where {dot over (n)}Leak_Model={dot over (n)}injSp_Model−{dot over (n)}TrsntConsum;
• and
• calculating an adaption term anew, where anew=(1+IA·∫e dt+pA·e+aold)·{dot over (n)}TrsntConsum/({dot over (n)}TrsntConsum+{dot over (n)}Leak_Model)−1, in which IA is an integral gain of the PIA controller, pA is a proportional gain of the PIA controller, e is an error of the PIA controller, ∫e dt is a time integral of the error e, and aold is a previously calculated or provided adaption term stored in the non-volatile memory.

A method of operating a fuel cell system having a hydrogen fuel injector/ejector, an anode, a proportional-integral-adaptive (PIA) controller operatively associated with the injector/ejector, a control system and a non-volatile memory associated with the control system, comprising:

• operating the fuel cell system at a power level for a predetermined time;
• determining a hydrogen fuel consumption rate {dot over (n)}TrsntConsum associated with the power level;
• obtaining a modeled hydrogen fuel flow rate {dot over (n)}injSp_Model associated with the selected power level and the injector/ejector;
• finding an anode leak rate {dot over (n)}Leak_Model of the anode, where {dot over (n)}Leak_Model={dot over (n)}injSp_Model−{dot over (n)}TrsntConsum;
• calculating an adaption term anew, where anew=(1+IA·∫e dt+pA·e+aold)·{dot over (n)}TrsntConsum/({dot over (n)}TrsntConsum+{dot over (n)}Leak_Model)−1, in which IA is an integral gain of the PIA controller, pA is a proportional gain of the PIA controller, e is an error of the PIA controller, ∫e dt is a time integral of the error e, and aold is a previously calculated or provided adaption term stored in the non-volatile memory;
• comparing the calculated adaption term anew with the previously calculated or provided adaption term aold;
• replacing the previously calculated or provided adaption term aold in the non-volatile memory with the calculated adaption term anew if the difference between the adaption terms aold and anew is greater than a predetermined value;
• repeating the operating, determining, obtaining, finding, calculating, comparing and replacing steps for a plurality of times for different power levels from the initial power level;
• estimating a true effective flow area AEff_True of the injector/ejector, using one of AEff_True=AEff_Model·({dot over (n)}TrsntConsum/{dot over (n)}injSp_Model) and AEff_True=Ageo·CoeffDC·(1+anew), in which AEff_Model is a modeled effective flow area associated with the injector/ejector, Ageo is an orifice area of the injector/ejector and CoeffDC is an orifice discharge coefficient of the injector/ejector;
• and
• using the effective flow area AEff_True to calculate or adjust a command signal, an estimation or an estimation error of at least one of a hydrogen fuel flow rate, an anode leak rate and the anode exhaust valve flow rate.