Control of Fuel Cell Power Systems

The series Advances in Industrial Control aims to report and encourage technology transfer in control engineering. The rapid development of control technology has an impact on all areas of the control discipline. New theory, new controllers, actuators, sensors, new industrial processes, computer meth­ ods, new applications, new philosophies ... , new challenges. Much of this development work resides in industrial reports, feasibility study papers and the reports of advanced collaborative projects. The series offers an opportu­ nity for researchers to present an extended exposition of such new work in all aspects of industrial control for wider and rapid dissemination. Fuel cell power systems is a new and exciting industrial area which is re­ ceiving considerable commercial investment as a future energy technology. The IEEE Spectrum magazine New Year issue of 2004 cited this area as one whose development and progress should be observed closely over the coming years. Successful application of fuel cell technology will depend on many fac­ tors not the least of which being how consistently their performance can be controlled. This Advances in Industrial Control monograph by Jay Pukrush­ pan, Anna Stefanopoulou and Huei Peng is a timely contribution to the area. As the authors so rightly say in their Preface, control engineers have different requirements from modelling, experimental studies and simulation work for designing a good control system and this monograph presents a control-orien­ tated approach to these topics in the fuel cell power system field.