Performance and economic study of a novel high-efficiency PEMFC vehicle thermal management system applied for cold conditions

Abstract

This paper proposes three different heating management systems, sysse (self priming thermal management system), syslow (low temperature thermal management system), and syssp (split flow thermal management system), which are mainly composed of PEMFC and heat pump subsystems. Simulations were conducted to compare the comprehensive performance of these systems under cold startup and cold operating conditions, and analyzed the effect of different factors on these three system. The results show that under the influence of cell stack parameters, compared to sysse and syslow, the syssp has an average power consumption reduction of 29.95 % and 20.94 %, with a maximum power reduction of 31.46 % and 27.61 %, the average range power increases by 35.09 % and 23.58 %, with a maximum range power increase of 107.53 % and 75.57 %, the average COPPEMFC (Coefficient of Performance of heating Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell) increases by 0.56 and 0.37. Under the influence of heat pump parameters, the evaporating temperature has a larger impact on the performance gains of the syssp, while condensing temperature has a greater effect on power consumption, range power, and COP variations. Compared to sysse and syslow, the syssp can recover costs as quickly as 3.12 and 3.68 years.