Performance simulation and analysis of a fuel cell/battery hybrid forklift truck

The performance of a forklift truck powered by a hybrid system consisting of a PEM fuel cell and a lead acid battery is modeled and investigated by conducting a parametric study. Various combinations of fuel cell size and battery capacity are employed in conjunction with two distinct control strategies to study their effect on hydrogen consumption and battery state-of-charge for two drive cycles characterized by different operating speeds and forklift loads. The results show that for all case studies, the combination of a 110 cell stack with two strings of 55 Ah batteries is the most economical choice for the hybrid system based on system size and hydrogen consumption. In addition, it is observed that hydrogen consumption decreases by about 24% when the maximum speed of the drive cycle is decreased from 4.5 to 3 m/s. Similarly, by decreasing the forklift load from 2.5 to 1.5 ton, the hydrogen consumption decreases by over 20%.     

Energy management of PEM fuel cell/ supercapacitor hybrid power sources for an electric vehicle

This paper presents the utilization of a supercapacitor (SC) as an auxiliary power source in an electric vehicle (EV), composed of a proton electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) as the main energy source. The main weak point of PEMFC is slow dynamics because one must limit the fuel cell current slope in order to prevent fuel starvation problems, to improve its performance and lifetime. The very fast power response and high specific power of a supercapacitor can complement the slower power output of the main source to produce the compatibility and performance characteristics needed in a propulsion system. DC-DC converters connected to the hybrid source ensure a constant voltage value in inverters inputs. After an architecture presentation of the hybrid energy source, two parallel-type configurations are explored in more detail. For each of them, the energy flow control and management, validated simulation shows the performance obtained in this configuration. The hybrid source management is based primarily on the intervention of the supercapacitor in fugitives' schemes such as slopes, different speeds and rapid acceleration. Secondly, the PEMFC intervenes to guarantee the power in permanent regime. Finally, simulation results considering energy management are presented and illustrated the hybrid energy source benefits.     

Improvement of ultracapacitors-energy usage in fuel cell based hybrid electric vehicle

Hybrid electric power systems based on fuel cell stack and energy storage sources like batteries and ultracapacitors are a plausible solution to vehicle electrification due to their balance between acceleration performance and range. Having a high degree of hybridization can be advantageous, considering the different characteristics of the power sources. Some parameters to be considered are: specific power and energy, energy and power density, lifetime, cost among others. Ultracapacitors (UC) are of particular interest in electric vehicle applications due to its high-power capability, which is commonly required during acceleration. UCs are commonly used without a power electronics interface due to the high-power processing requirement. Although connecting UCs directly to the DC bus, without using a power converter, presents considerable advantages, the main disadvantage is related to the UC energy-usage capability, which is limited by constant DC bus control. This paper proposes a novel energy-management strategy based on a fuzzy inference system, for fuel-cell/battery/ultracapacitor hybrid electric vehicles. The proposed strategy is able to control the charge and discharge of the UC bank in order to take advantage of its energy storage capability. Experimental results show that the proposed strategy reduces the waste of energy due to dynamic brake in 14%. This represents a reduction in energy consumption from 218 Wh/km to 192 Wh/km for the same driving conditions. By using the proposed energy management strategy, the estimated fuel efficiency in miles per gallon equivalent was also increase from 96 mpge to 109 mpge.     

Operation characteristics and performance analysis of integrated power and hybrid cooling systems driven by PEM fuel cell

With the rapid growth in the number of data centers, energy consumption has increased exponentially, and energy conservation has become a focus of data center applications. Owing to the different ambient conditions in different regions, this study proposed novel integrated power and hybrid cooling systems driven by PEMFC. Multiple cooling methods were investigated to make full use of the waste heat generated by PEMFC and natural cold sources. Three types integrated systems, including a basic combined cooling and power (BCCP) supply system, a heat pipe combined cooling and power (HPCCP) supply system, and an outdoor air combined cooling and power (OACCP) supply system were constructed. Five cities representing five climatic regions were selected to compare and analyze the operation characteristics and energy efficiency of the three systems. It is concluded that the values of power usage effectiveness (PUE) in the three systems are 1.16–1.32, and the theoretical energy efficiency is 87.80%–91.08%, which is 11.27%–12.42% higher than the reported value of a commercially used data center in Changping. The energy efficiency of the OACCP system is generally higher than that of the HPCCP system. The HPCCP system is suitable for cold and severely cold climate regions, and the OACCP system is suitable for temperate climate regions. Such findings may provide theoretical basis for the selection of the integrated power and cooling system designed for data centers in different climate regions. However, the theoretical results may need further improvement by including the energy loss during transportation and the efficiency of the converter during power conversion.     

Fuel cell/battery passive hybrid power source for electric powertrains

The concept of passive hybrid, i.e. the direct electrical coupling between a fuel cell system and a battery without using a power converter, is presented as a feasible solution for powertrain applications. As there are no DC/DC converters, the passive hybrid is a cheap and simple solution and the power losses in the electronic hardware are eliminated. In such a powertrain topology where the two devices always have the same voltage, the active power sharing between the two energy sources can not be done in the conventional way. As an alternative, control of the fuel cell power by adjusting its operating pressure is elaborated. Only pure H₂/O₂ fuel cell systems are considered in this approach. Simulation and hardware in the loop (HIL) results for the powertrain show that this hybrid power source is able to satisfy the power demand of an electric vehicle while sustaining the battery state of charge.     

A hybrid fuel cell system integrated with methanol steam reformer and methanation reactor

In this paper, a hybrid fuel cell system integrated with methanol steam reformer and methanation reactor is demonstrated. Methanol steam reformer employed in this system is to produce hydrogen-rich reformate in connection with a methanation reactor to reduce the carbon monoxide content effectively, and the reformate gas is sent into a low-temperature polymer electrolyte fuel cell for direct electric power generation. The optimum conditions (temperature, water to methanol ratio, and space velocity) for methanol steam reforming (MSR) reaction and methanation (MET) reaction are verified by experiments. A comparison between pure hydrogen, reformate surrogate, and actual reformate is performed. The results show that the power density of this hybrid system achieves 245.2 mW/cm² while it achieves 268.8 mW/cm² when employing pure hydrogen as the fuel. An alternative novel method to solve the problem of hydrogen storage and transportation is provided and the in-situ hydrogen production and utilizing through low-temperature fuel cell system is realized, which is helpful to accelerate the commercialization process of the fuel cell.     

Energy control of supercapacitor/fuel cell hybrid power source

This paper deals with a flatness based control principle in a hybrid system utilizing a fuel cell as a main power source and a supercapacitor as an auxiliary power source. The control strategy is based on regulation of the dc bus capacitor energy and, consequently, voltage regulation. The proposed control algorithm does not use a commutation algorithm when the operating mode changes with the load power variation and, thus, avoids chattering effects. Using the flatness based control method, the fuel cell dynamic and its delivered power is perfectly controlled, and the fuel cell can operate in a safe condition. In the hybrid system, the supercapacitor functions during transient energy delivery or during energy recovery situations. To validate the proposed method, the control algorithms are executed in dSPACE hardware, while analogical current loops regulators are employed in the experimental environment. The experimental results prove the validity of the proposed approach.     

Airport electric vehicle powered by fuel cell

Nowadays, new technologies and breakthroughs in the field of energy efficiency, alternative fuels and added-value electronics are leading to bigger, more sustainable and green thinking applications. Within the Automotive Industry, there is a clear declaration of commitment with the environment and natural resources. The presence of passenger vehicles of hybrid architecture, public transport powered by cleaner fuels, non-aggressive utility vehicles and an encouraging social awareness, are bringing to light a new scenario where conventional and advanced solutions will be in force.     

Design of a hybrid electric fuel cell power train for an urban bus

With the requirements for reducing emissions and improving fuel economy, new markets have become attractive for automotive companies that are developing electric, hybrid, and plug-in vehicles using new technologies candidates to be implemented in the next generations of vehicles. Most of all, hybrid vehicles are attracting interest due to great potential to achieve higher fuel economy and a longer range with respect to pure electric mode but often this solution is not petroleum free. Within a national project CNR TAE Institute is involved in the development of a zero emission hybrid electric city bus based on PEM fuel cell technology able to increase the range at least 30% with respect to the same vehicle in pure electric configuration. Design, control and preliminary results are reported in this paper.     

Power management system for a fuel cell/battery hybrid vehicle incorporating fuel cell and battery degradation

Optimization of fuel cell/battery hybrid vehicle systems has primarily focused on reducing fuel consumption. However, it is also necessary to focus on fuel cell and battery durability as inadequate lifespan is still a major barrier to the commercialization of fuel cell vehicles. Here, we introduce a power management strategy which concurrently accounts for fuel consumption as well as fuel cell and battery degradation. Fuel cell degradation is quantified using a simplified electrochemical model which provides an analytical solution for the decay of the electrochemical surface area (ECSA) in the fuel cell by accounting for the performance loss due to transient power load, start/stop cycles, idling and high power load. The results show that the performance loss based on remaining ECSA matches well with test data in the literature. A validated empirical model is used to relate Lithium-ion battery capacity decay to C-rate. Simulations are then conducted using a typical bus drive cycle to optimize the fuel cell/battery hybrid system. We demonstrate that including these degradation models in the objective function can effectively extend the lifetime of the fuel cell at the expense of higher battery capacity decay resulting in a lower average running cost over the lifetime of the vehicle.     

Prediction-based optimal power management in a fuel cell/battery plug-in hybrid vehicle

A prediction-based power management strategy is proposed for fuel cell/battery plug-in hybrid vehicles with the goal of improving overall system operating efficiency. The main feature of the proposed strategy is that, if the total amount of energy required to complete a particular drive cycle can be reliably predicted, then the energy stored in the onboard electrical storage system can be depleted in an optimal manner that permits the fuel cell to operate in its most efficient regime. The strategy has been implemented in a vehicle power-train simulator called LFM which was developed in MATLAB/SIMULINK software and its effectiveness was evaluated by comparing it with a conventional control strategy. The proposed strategy is shown to provide significant improvement in average fuel cell system efficiency while reducing hydrogen consumption. It has been demonstrated with the LFM simulation that the prediction-based power management strategy can maintain a stable power request to the fuel cell thereby improving fuel cell durability, and that the battery is depleted to the desired state-of-charge at the end of the drive cycle. A sensitivity analysis has also been conducted to study the effects of inaccurate predictions of the remaining portion of the drive cycle on hydrogen consumption and the final battery state-of-charge. Finally, the advantages of the proposed control strategy over the conventional strategy have been validated through implementation in the University of Delaware's fuel cell hybrid bus with operational data acquired from onboard sensors.     

Modeling and control of a PEM fuel cell based hybrid multilevel inverter

Multilevel inverter is an effective and practical solution for increasing power demand and reducing harmonics of AC waveforms. It is mainly employed in the distributed energy sources area because several batteries, fuel cell and solar cell can be connected through multilevel inverter to feed a load. This paper investigates the potentials of a single-phase Hybrid Cascaded Multilevel Inverter (HCMLI) fed from Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC). A mathematical model of the PEMFC supplying HCMLI has been developed. This paper also presents the effect of a novel hybrid modulation on the device switching losses and harmonics of HCMLI. The proposed hybrid modulation technique combines the fundamental frequency switching scheme and Variable Frequency Inverted Sine Pulse Width Modulation (VFISPWM) technique. A comparison between the hybrid modulation strategy and the conventional Phase Disposition (PD) PWM method is also presented in terms of THD and switching losses. A suitable PID controller has been designed to control the output voltage of fuel cell based HCMLI, so that it can provide constant AC voltage with minimum THD up to the rated conditions. The inverter circuit topology and its control scheme are described in detail and their performance is verified based on simulation and experimental results.     

A new topology of fuel cell hybrid power source for efficient operation and high reliability

This paper analyzes a new fuel cell Hybrid Power Source (HPS) topology having the feature to mitigate the current ripple of the fuel cell inverter system. In the operation of the inverter system that is grid connected or supplies AC motors in vehicle application, the current ripple normally appears at the DC port of the fuel cell HPS. Consequently, if mitigation measures are not applied, this ripple is back propagated to the fuel cell stack. Other features of the proposed fuel cell HPS are the Maximum Power Point (MPP) tracking, high reliability in operation under sharp power pulses and improved energy efficiency in high power applications. This topology uses an inverter system directly powered from the appropriate fuel cell stack and a controlled buck current source as low power source used for ripple mitigation. The low frequency ripple mitigation is based on active control. The anti-ripple current is injected in HPS output node and this has the LF power spectrum almost the same with the inverter ripple. Consequently, the fuel cell current ripple is mitigated by the designed active control. The ripple mitigation performances are evaluated by indicators that are defined to measure the mitigation ratio of the low frequency harmonics. In this paper it is shown that good performances are obtained by using the hysteretic current control, but better if a dedicated nonlinear controller is used. Two ways to design the nonlinear control law are proposed. First is based on simulation trials that help to draw the characteristic of ripple mitigation ratio vs. fuel cell current ripple. The second is based on Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC). The ripple factor is up to 1% in both cases.     

An innovative optimal power allocation strategy for fuel cell, battery and supercapacitor hybrid electric vehicle

An optimal design of a three-component hybrid fuel cell electric vehicle comprised of fuel cells, battery, and supercapacitors is presented. First, the benefits of using this hybrid combination are analyzed, and then the article describes an active power-flow control strategy from each energy source based on optimal control theory to meet the demand of different vehicle loads while optimizing total energy cost, battery life and other possible objectives at the same time. A cost function that minimizes the square error between the desired variable settings and the current sensed values is developed. A gain sequence developed compels the choice of power drawn from all devices to follow an optimal path, which makes trade-offs among different targets and minimizes the total energy spent. A new method is introduced to make the global optimization into a real-time based control. A model is also presented to simulate the individual energy storage systems and compare this invention to existing control strategies, the simulation results show that the total energy spent is well saved over the long driving cycles, also the fuel cell and batteries are kept operating in a healthy way.     

Intelligent uninterruptible power supply system with back-up fuel cell/battery hybrid power source

This paper presents the development of an intelligent uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system with a hybrid power source that comprises a proton-exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) and a battery. Attention is focused on the architecture of the UPS hybrid system and the data acquisition and control of the PEMFC. Specifically, the hybrid UPS system consists of a low-cost 60-cell 300 W PEMFC stack, a 3-cell lead–acid battery, an active power factor correction ac–dc rectifier, a half-bridge dc–ac inverter, a dc–dc converter, an ac–dc charger and their control units based on a digital signal processor TMS320F240, other integrated circuit chips, and a simple network management protocol adapter. Experimental tests and theoretical studies are conducted. First, the major parameters of the PEMFC are experimentally obtained and evaluated. Then an intelligent control strategy for the PEMFC stack is proposed and implemented. Finally, the performance of the hybrid UPS system is measured and analyzed.     

Development of solid oxide fuel cell and battery hybrid power generation system

Solid oxide fuel cell hybrid generation system is the best scheme for the load tracking of off-grid monitoring stations. But there are still potential problems that need to be addressed: preventing fuel starvation and ensuring thermal safety while meeting load tracking in hybrid power generation system. In order to solve these problems, a feasible hybrid power generation system structure scheme is proposed which combined SOFC subsystem and Li-ion battery subsystem. Then a model of the hybrid power generation system is built based on the proposed system structure. On this basis, an adaptive controller, include the adaptive energy management algorithm and current feedforward gas supply strategy, is applied to manage the power-sharing in this hybrid system as well as keep the system operating within the safety constraints. The constraints, including maintaining the bus voltage at the desired level, keeping SOFC operating temperature in safety, and mitigating fuel starvation are explicitly considered. The stability of the proposed energy management algorithm is analyzed. Finally, the developed control algorithm is applied to the hybrid power generation system model, the operation result proves the feasibility of the designed controller strategy for hybrid generation system and effectively prevent fuel starvation and ensure thermal safety.     

Control strategy of a fuel-cell power module for electric forklift

Fuel cell-battery hybrid systems for the powertrain, which have the advantage of emission-free power generation and adapt to material transport and emission reduction, are investigated. Based on the characteristics of the fuel cell system and the characteristics of the electric forklift truck powertrain system, this work defines the design principle of the control strategy to improve overall performance and economy. A simulation platform for fuel cell and electric vehicles has been established. The optimal performance of the fuel cell stack and the battery capacity were defined for the specific application. An energy control strategy was defined for different operating cycles and operating conditions. Model validation involved comparing simulation results with experimental data obtained during VDI60 test protocol. The main parameters that influence the forklift performance were defined and evaluated, such as energy loss, fuel cell operating conditions and different battery charging cycles. The optimal size of the fuel cell stack of 11 kW and the battery of 10 Ah was determined for the specific load profile with the proposed control strategy. The results obtained in this work forms the basis for an in-depth study of the energy management of fuel cell battery drive trains for forklift trucks.     

Development of non-perfluorinated hybrid materials for single-cell proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Development of low temperature fuel cells that operate under 100 °C are needed to reduce the costs, to design a class of hybrid membranes and to construct various structures of membrane-electrode-assembles (MEAs) for proton exchange membrane fuel cells (PEMFC). In this work, PVA/PMA/SiO₂ hybrid composite membranes were synthesized and their conductivities were determined by impedance measurements. We found a maximum conductivity value of 4.2 × 10⁻³ S/cm at 80 °C and 100% relative humidity (RH). A fuel cell test evaluation for various MEAs was conducted by the potentiodynamic analysis and the current density values were determined from the current–voltage (I–V) curves. A maximum current density of 635 mA/cm² was obtained at 80 °C and 100% RH. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that a high current density of PVA-based electrolytes for PEMFCs operating at low temperature is reported. The structural characters were examined using of XRD and FTIR methods, and thermal properties were studied using DSC and TGA techniques and the results were discussed (cf. supplementation). The present study revealed that the single cell performance depends mainly on the temperature, relative humidity and chemical compositions of the membranes.     

Design of an integrated power system using a proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Integrated power systems could be a solution to provide energy to remote communities based on the use of renewable energies (such as wind or sun). This work proposed the design of one of those systems including alkaline water electrolysers, storage tanks and a proton exchange membrane fuel cell for generating of 53 kW (working at 60% of its maximum power). Electrode sizes and the quantity of unit cells proposed in this work were the same as those suggested in the research work by Yang et al., where a phosphoric acid fuel cell was built and studied. The results obtained in that research allowed comparing energy efficiency by scaling a laboratory prototype. The dimensions of the alkaline water electrolysers are the result of satisfying the necessity of fuel and oxidant. The energy consumption results from extrapolating laboratory devices. The integrated power system has a storage tank capacity of 16 h.     

Numerical analysis of transport phenomena for designing of ejector in PEM forklift system

In the present study, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technique is used to design an ejector for anode recirculation in an automotive PEMFC system. A CFD model is firstly established and tested against well-documented and relevant solutions from the literature, and then used for different ejector geometries under different operating conditions. Results showed that a single ejector with optimized geometry cannot cover the required recirculation in the entire range of the fuel cell current. Having two ejectors for different ranges of currents is thus proposed as an alternative solution in which the system can better take the advantage of ejectors for recirculation purpose. In addition, the operating mode of one variable nozzle ejector has been investigated and compared with aforementioned cases. The results showed that the variable nozzle ejector can work in the same operational mode as in the case with two ejectors. However, in practice, the latter one needs a more complicated control system and it is more difficult to manufacture.