Direct fuel oxidization yields major fuel cell power system simplifications and potential performance advantages, particularly for an automotive power plant application. The system simplification is particularly striking when a direct fuel system is compared to an “indirect” fuel cell system in a vehicle (where the fuel on board must be “reformed” and “cleaned” to provide a hydrogen-rich gas “r...

Based on the problems caused by today conventional vehicles, much attention has been put on the fuel cell vehicles researches. However, using a fuel cell system is not adequate alone in transportation applications, because the load power profile includes transient that is not compatible with the fuel cell dynamic. To resolve this problem, hybridization of the fuel cell and energy storage device...

In this paper, Plug-in Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle (PFCEV) is considered with dual power sources including Fuel Cell (FC) and battery Energy Storage. In order to respond to a transient power demand, usually supercapacitor energy storage device is combined with fuel cell to create a hybrid system with high energy density of fuel cell and the high power density of battery. In order to simulate the...

This study explores different hybridization levels of a midsized vehicle powered by a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell stack. The energy buffer considered is a leadacid-type battery. The effects of the battery size on the overall energy losses for different drive cycles are determined when dynamic programming determines the optimal current drawn from the fuel cell system. The different hy...

The present paper explores the impact of an on-board hydrogen harvesting system (fuel reformer) on the overall efficiency of a fuel-cell powered vehicle. Various methods of hydrogen production for automotive applications have been discussed first. As the hydrogen production is one of the major challenges for application of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, especially in vehicular indus...

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are one promising vehicle technology for reducing the long-term environmental and energy-use impacts of personal vehicle use. Depending on how the hydrogen is produced, these vehicles can have very low emissions of air pollutants and greenhouse gases while also avoiding the use of petroleum. This paper reports the findings of real-world research conducted by the Univ...

Hybridization of fuel cells with additional batteries or ultracapacitors in a fuel cell vehicle reduces electrical and mechanical stresses on fuel cells and improves the overall drive train efficiency over a standard drive cycle. This paper primarily analyzes hybrid fuel cell vehicles with different drive train arrangements, and compares projected fuel economies of hybrid fuel cell vehicles wit...

This paper focuses on the energy management control strategy for a hybrid fuel cell powered vehicle. A method based on optimal control theory is presented. This control strategy has been applied to a representative hybrid PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) fuel cell mid-size vehicle. Simulation results on a priori known driving cycle are presented and compared to a sub-optimal strategy. Copyright ©...