Hybrid electric fuel cell vehicles are studied using a system perspective that explores the tradeoffs among fuel economy, acceleration, and other vehicle attributes. Design decisions are derived from an enterprise decision-making model that seeks to maximize profit. Uncertainties stemming from manufacturing variability, customer preferences, and market response to fuel price fluctuations are al...

The transient behavior of a Fuel Processor System to produce Hydrogen from bio-ethanol with high performance, coupled with a Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell is modeled. The Ethanol Processor is based on a previous steady state design, optimized to work with maximum efficiency around 10 kW of rated power. From the dynamic rigorous model, a linearized model is identified to apply a systematic ...

Biofuel, a form of renewable fuel, has promising future, especially as the alternative fuel for transportation. Biofuel is usually blended with petroleum fuel and used in flex fuel engines. Since the characteristics of biofuel are quite different from those of the petroleum based fuel, it is very important to optimize the combustion properties for biofuel engines under different fuel blends. Th...

There is much interest in developing fuel cells for commercial applications. This interest is driven by technical and environmental advantages offered by the fuel cell, including high performance characteristics, reliability, durability, and clean power. A fuel cell is similar to a battery—it uses an electrochemical process to directly convert chemical energy to electricity. Unlike a battery, h...

A new real-time strategy is proposed in this article to optimize the hydrogen utilization of a fuel cell vehicle, by switching control references fueling regulators, based on load-following. The advantages are discussed and compared, with advanced strategies that also use aforementioned load-following mode regulator controllers, but entire loading range, respectively, benchmark utilizing static...

Passenger vehicles fueled by hydrocarbons or alcohols and powered by proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells address world air quality and fuel supply concerns while avoiding hydrogen infrastructure and on-board storage problems. Reduction of the carbon monoxide concentration in the on-board fuel processor’s hydrogen-rich gas by the preferential oxidizer (PrOx) under dynamic conditions is cru...

The fuel consumption is an important component of the vehicle operating cost which is a significant component of the total transportation cost. Fuel consumption data are extensively used by transport planners, transport managers and other professional for various evaluation processes in overall gambit of sustainable transportation system. Accuracy of fuel consumption data is one of the key fact...

This paper presents a stability investigation of the step recessed, hydro-static and -dynamic hybrid water-lubricated journal bearings for fuel cell vehicle compressor. The dynamic coefficients and stability threshold speed of the bearings are numerically calculated by solving the turbulent Reynolds equation by using FEM. Two configuration bearings are comparatively studied and the different dy...

This report examines the possible safety benefits from driving in a manner that results in lower fuel consumption and emissions. It attempts to assess the potential of promoting additional motivations to drive safely – better fuel economy and other environmental outcomes, and reduced running costs. Reducing speeding, lower speed limits and modifying driving style were found to improve fuel econ...

A breakeven analysis of low carbon vehicle/fuel systems is conducted for the US for the year 2020, taking into consideration both private and external costs. All comparisons are made with respect to the conventional gasoline car as the baseline. Interestingly, the social cost of carbon prevailing in the literature is not high enough to justify the prioritization of low carbon vehicle/fuel techn...