Abstract
A new real-time strategy is proposed in this article to optimize the hydrogen utilization of a fuel cell vehicle, by switching the control references of fueling regulators, based on load-following. The advantages of this strategy are discussed and compared, with advanced strategies that also use the aforementioned load-following mode regulator of fueling controllers, but in the entire loading range, respectively, with a benchmark strategy utilizing the static feed-forward control of fueling controllers. Additionally, the advantages of energy-storage function in a charge-sustained mode, such as a longer service life and reduced size due to the implementation of the proposed switching strategy, are presented for the dynamic profiles across the entire load range. The optimization function was designed to improve the fuel economy by adding to the total power of the fuel utilization efficiency (in a weighted way). The proposed optimization loop will seek the reference value to control the fueling regulator in real-time, which is not regulated by a load-following approach. The best switching threshold between the high and low loading scales were obtained using a sensitivity analysis carried out for both fixed and dynamic loads. The results obtained were promising—(1) the fuel economy was two-times higher than the advanced strategies mentioned above; and (2) the total fuel consumption was 13% lower than the static feed-forward strategy. This study opens new research directions for fuel cell vehicles, such as for obtaining the best fuel economy or estimating fuel consumption up to the first refueling station on the planned road.
Highlights
In the coming decades, energy and environmental issues will become the most important challenges for researchers working in the sustainable development of energy sector [1,2]
This work analyzed the performance of the SW–LFW technique in comparison to strategies based on Air–LFW, Fuel–LFW, static feed-forward (sFF) control, and the switching strategy proposed in [110]
The fuel efficiency was better for the SW–LFW strategy in case of a dynamic load across the full range as it used the best strategy for a certain load level—Air–LFW strategy for high-load values and Fuel–LFW strategy for low-load values
Summary
Energy and environmental issues will become the most important challenges for researchers working in the sustainable development of energy sector [1,2]. The key findings and novelty of this work are as follows—(1) a scheme for a new optimization approach (the SW–LFW strategy) for better fuel economy of the FC system; (2) the fuel efficiency was compared using the SW–LFW strategy, and the advanced Air–LFW and Fuel–LFW strategies; (3) the fuel economy obtained with the SW–LFW strategy and the sFF control-based strategy was compared; (4) the advantages related to battery lifetime and size were advanced by switching the system from load-following control to fueling regulators; (5) the optimum switching threshold was advanced on the basis of a sensitivity investigation; (6) the optimization function was designed to achieve the best fuel economy; (7) almost the same fuel economy was advanced with the SW–LFW strategy and switching strategy proposed in [110], but the one proposed here was simpler and safer; and a method for estimating fuel consumption up to the first refueling station on the planned road was proposed. The innovative solutions proposed here to develop the fuel economy could help increase the system performance of FC vehicles
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