Designing man‐portable power generation systems for varying power demand

Abstract Portable electronic devices operate at varying power demand levels. This variability of power demand must be considered explicitly in the design of man‐portable power generation systems for acceptable performance and portability. In this regard, a mathematical programming based design method is proposed. The method transcribes optimal operation of the system at a given power demand into a mathematical program. The power demand specific programs are incorporated into another upper level mathematical program encoding design requirements to form a final two‐stage formulation. The design and operational parameters of the power generation system comprise a solution of the formulation. Unlike designs, based on a nominal power demand, the design guarantees that each power demand and all operational requirements can be satisfied. A detailed study of a microfabricated fuel‐cell based system is performed. The proposed method produces smaller designs with significantly better performances than nominal power demand based approaches. © 2008 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 2008