Effects of temperature on the performance of fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles: A review

Abstract

Fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles powered by fuel cell and lithium-ion battery have been considered as an attractive and potential candidate in place of internal combustion vehicles with the advantage of high energy density and energy conversion efficiency, and have become a configuration of interest of many researchers in recent years. Energy management and thermal management are critical issues for steady output power of fuel cell hybrid power system. However, most of the research on energy management and temperature control of fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles is mutually independent. From the literatures, it is observed that existing energy management strategies without integration of fuel cell or battery’s temperature dimension are more or less incapable to perform very well. This paper focuses on reviewing the temperature effects on energy management strategies for fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles. To do this, temperature effects on the performance of lithium-ion battery and proton exchange membrane fuel cell are summarized respectively at first. Then, energy management in combination with thermal management of hybrid electric vehicles and fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles are analyzed and summarized in detail. It is indicated that the solution of power distribution considering temperature effects is a significant way to improve the efficiency and service life of fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles compared to the energy management strategy without considering temperature effects. Based on the above analysis, future suggestions of EMS designing are prospected in order to achieve better performance for fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles.