Fuel Cell Vehicle Technology Research Articles

Design and development of model for proton exchange membrane fuel cell

Fuel prices are rising, and fossil fuel resources are depleting. This fuel is consumed by conventional fuel vehicles, which contributes to increased greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. Various vehicle technologies have been introduced in modern times. Among these innovations, fuel cell vehicle technology stands out due to its ease of use, robustness, and simplicity. The primary energy source for this system is hydrogen. Fuel cells use hydrogen to generate electricity through a chemical process that does not involve combustion. The purpose of this paper is to describe the design and development of a simulation model for a fuel cell (proton exchange membrane type) vehicle using mathematical equations and the MATLAB/Simulink R2020a software, taking into account all voltage losses and temperature variations of the proton exchange membrane (PEM) type fuel cell. The designed model is validated in two ways: first by generating V-I characteristics for the designed PEM-type fuel cell, and then by performing a performance test in Simulink using the driving cycle on one of the fuel cell vehicles. The obtained simulated results are nearly identical to the expected results, and the designed PEM-type fuel cell performed well in all real-time driving cycle test conditions.

Review of Vehicle Engine Efficiency and Emissions

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">This review covers advances in regulations and technologies in the past year in the field of vehicular emissions. We cover major developments towards reducing criteria pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions from both light- and heavy-duty vehicles and off-road machinery. To suggest that the transportation is transforming rapidly is an understatement, and many changes have happened already since our review last year [<span class="xref">1</span>]. Notably, the US and Europe revised the CO<sub>2</sub> standards for light-duty vehicles and electrification mandates were introduced in various regions of the world. These have accelerated plans to introduce electrified powertrains, which include hybrids and pure electric vehicles. However, a full transformation to electric vehicles and the required grid decarbonization will take time, and policy makers are accordingly also tightening criteria pollutant standards for internal combustion engines. California has published the Advanced Clean Cars II standards and Europe has held various workshops outlining the core elements of future Euro 7 regulations. These will likely be the last major regulations for criteria pollutants, and compliant vehicles will likely be zero-impact emitting, that is with tailpipe emissions at or lower than the ambient concentrations. Meeting these regulations will require adoption of several advanced engine and emission control technologies which we discuss here. Emphasis will be on reducing cold start emissions, likely requiring active thermal management strategies. The challenge will be to lower criteria pollutants while also reducing fuel consumption, and we review some approaches being considered. The story is similar for heavy-duty vehicles, where meeting California’s Low NOx regulations and Euro VII scenarios require significantly improved engine controls and after-treatment systems. New system solutions and hardware additions show a pathway to meeting the regulations, although we caution that much more work is needed ahead to achieve the reductions over extended durability limits and with healthy engineering margins. We also review the impact of alternative fuels on reducing well-to-wheels (WTW) greenhouse gas emissions, along with recommendations to continue improving market fuel quality to reduce negative impact on criteria pollutants. Finally, while this paper does not intend to provide a detailed review of battery electric or fuel cell vehicle technology, we touch upon a few studies which discuss the outlook of powertrain diversification from a total cost of ownership and greenhouse gas reduction perspective.</div></div>

Life Cycle Costing Analysis: Tools and Applications for Determining Hydrogen Production Cost for Fuel Cell Vehicle Technology

This work investigates life cycle costing analysis as a tool to estimate the cost of hydrogen to be used as fuel for Hydrogen Fuel Cell vehicles (HFCVs). The method of life cycle costing and economic data are considered to estimate the cost of hydrogen for centralised and decentralised production processes. In the current study, two major hydrogen production methods are considered, methane reforming and water electrolysis. The costing frameworks are defined for hydrogen production, transportation and final application. The results show that hydrogen production via centralised methane reforming is financially viable for future transport applications. The ownership cost of HFCVs shows the highest cost among other costs of life cycle analysis.

A comprehensive review of energy management optimization strategies for fuel cell passenger vehicle

With the gradual maturity of fuel cell vehicle technology, it gives a better opportunity for the application of passenger vehicles. In this paper, the energy management optimization strategies of fuel cell passenger vehicle (FCPV) are summarized for the first time. Initially, in this review, the topological configurations of FCPV are classified systematically. The optimization objectives, energy consumption and fuel cell life, are proposed for FCPV. Then the energy management strategies (EMSs) are illustrated and analysed based on the optimization objectives above. In terms of the complex and changeable characteristics of FCPV driving conditions, the latest FCPV EMSs which depend on driving information prediction technologies are discussed and summarized. The purpose of this paper is providing references for the development of new generation FCPV energy management optimization strategies.

ÇOK GİRİŞLİ DÖNÜŞTÜRÜCÜDEN OLUŞAN ŞARJ EDİLEBİLİR YAKIT HÜCRELİ BİR HİBRİT ELEKTRİKLİ ARAÇ İÇİN HESAPLAYICI VERİMLİ BİR ENERJİ YÖNETİM YÖNTEMİ

Fuel cell vehicle technology has drawn wide attention because of the environmental and economic issues related to excessive usage of fossil fuels. Fuel cells are known for their unidirectional environmental friendly operation; however, they have low power density and suffer from slow dynamics. Therefore, a sole fuel cell system cannot meet the requirements of an electric vehicle whose power demand is quite dynamic. In a way of hybridizing a fuel cell with energy storage devices, it can be possible to overcome aforementioned problems. A plug-in fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle system, equipped with a battery and an ultra-capacitor, is proposed in this work. In this system, a single multi-input converter is utilized to control source energies. Moreover, this work develops a computationally efficient energy management strategy which is essentially a frequency decoupling method basically taking the advantage of easily applicable low pass filters. In this strategy, a polynomial scales the fuel cell and battery power levels to regulate ultra-capacitor voltage. The whole system is tested via a simulation model after the detailed analysis of the multi-input converter.

Quelles frontières géographiques pour les systèmes d’innovation technologique ?

Cet article contribue aux débats concernant les échelles géographiques des Technological Innovation Systems (TIS). Une première partie explicite comment d’un point de vue méthodologique les co-brevets constituent un outil pertinent pour appréhender un TIS et poser la question de son échelle spatiale. La suite de l’article étudie les co-brevets déposés par les 10 constructeurs automobiles sur le domaine du véhicule hybride sur la période 2000-2013. Sur la base de 3250 co-brevets, nous montrons que 1) l’indice de nationalisation est plutôt élevé pour 5 constructeurs et très faibles pour trois autres démontrant l’hétérogénéité des pratiques et des frontières spatiales du TIS ; 2) cette hétérogénéité se retrouve pour ce qui concerne les types de partenaires mobilisés et leurs localisations. La dernière section en retire des conclusions analytiques pour l’analyse des TIS et leurs frontières géographiques. Codes JEL : O31, O33, L62

Loading Acid–Base Pairs into Periodic Mesoporous Organosilica for High Anhydrous Proton Conductivity over a Wide Operating Temperature Window

The design and fabrication of high proton conductors over a wide working temperature range are significant for the development of proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells, as fuel cell vehicle technology requires solid electrolytes that should have the ability of conductivity at both high and subzero temperatures. Here, we demonstrated that biphenylene-bridged periodic-mesoporous-organosilica (PMO) and its sulfonated derivatives (s-PMO) are good hosts to load proton carrier imidazole for such sophisticated proton-conducting materials. With the acid–base pairs, the resulting material Im@s-PMO shows efficient proton conductivity over the temperature range from −40 °C (1.12 × 10–6 S/cm) to 180 °C (7.11 × 10–3 S/cm) under anhydrous conditions; the maximum value is significantly higher than that of Im@PMO (2.30 × 10–4 S/cm, 180 °C). The interaction between imidazole and the sulfonate group obviously affects the conductivity, which was confirmed by thermogravimetric analysis, MALDI-TOF mass spectrum, Fourier t...

Application of the X-in-the-Loop Testing Method in the FCV Hybrid Degree Test

With the development of fuel cell vehicle technology, an effective testing method that can be applied to develop and verify the fuel cell vehicle powertrain system is urgently required. This paper presents the X-in-the-Loop (XiL) testing method in the fuel cell vehicle (FCV) hybrid degree test to resolve the first and key issues for the powertrain system design, and the test process and scenarios were designed. The hybrid degree is redefined into the static hybrid degree for system architecture design and the dynamic hybrid degree for vehicle control strategy design, and an integrated testing platform was introduced and a testing application was implemented by following the designed testing flowchart with two loops. Experimental validations show that the sizing of the FCE (Fuel Cell Engine), battery pack, and traction motor with the powertrain architecture can be determined, the control strategy can be evaluated seamlessly, and a systematic powertrain testing solution can be achieved through the whole development process. This research has developed a new testing platform and proposed a novel testing method on the fuel cell vehicle powertrain system, which will be a contribution to fuel cell vehicle technology and its industrialization.

Patent-based technology forecasting: case of electric and hydrogen vehicle

The purpose of this paper is to study the evolution of emerging technological paths in the automotive industry. Worldwide patent data from the years 1990-2010 was collected and utilised to define the technological life cycles of the electric and fuel cell vehicle technologies. The novelty of our study is practicing the patent analysis approach using text mining techniques to collect patents according to their concepts in the automotive industry. The patent analysis results are compared to existing literature and expert opinion studies in alternative fuel vehicles field. The findings suggest that the development of electric vehicles will be quicker with a higher R&D share, compared to hydrogen vehicles. By gathering data and insights, the paper also offers general views on future automotive technology trajectories.

Technological advances in the fuel cell vehicle: Patent portfolio management

With the shift from an industry-based society to a knowledge-based one, there has been a gradual increase in the importance of intangible assets such as technologies and information. Patents are a representative intellectual outcome of intangible assets and can be used as an objective measure of the level of technology or innovation of individuals, firms, and countries. In addition, patents can be regarded as a rich source of data for the provision of technological and commercial information. Patent data facilitate research on technological advances and innovation; hence, an analysis of this data can provide important insights into innovation activity and technology management strategies. This paper presents a method for extracting core technologies from core fuel cell vehicle (FCV) patents registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office by using a data mining technique. Core patents are determined by analyzing patent citations, and the data mining technique identifies those firms with core FCV technologies and reveals the overall research focus of the firms by deriving patent portfolios and and technology recommendations considering the extracted core technologies.

Plug-in Fuel Cell Vehicle Technology and Value Analysis

Plug-in Hydrogen Fuel Cell Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PFCVs) offer reduced operating and manufacturing cost when compared to conventional hydrogen fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles (FCVs), and improved range and refueling time when compared to grid charged Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs). As such, PFCVs provide opportunity to combine the advantages and mitigate the limitations of both FCVs and EVs. Although the PFCV concept has been presented conceptually in the past, no quantitative analyses of its prospective technical, environmental and economic characteristics have been performed until recently. Motivated by the basic promise of a new high-efficiency, zero-emission vehicle, the authors have conducted an initial assessment of PFCVs in comparison with FCVs, BEVs and internal combustion engine-battery hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). This study was coordinated by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and supported by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the Southern California Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD). The study approach included the identification of representative PFCV, FCV, BEV and PHEV vehicle configurations, the modeling of these configurations, and the determination of their energy use, well-to-wheel carbon dioxide emissions, and cost characteristics. Results show that, with economies of scale, PFCVs can offer a competitive alternative to conventional PHEVs with the added benefits of being 100% petroleum independent and having zero tailpipe emissions. Within the context of PFCVs, a wide range of design freedom is possible; this study suggests that low power fuel cells and high energy batteries provide optimal benefits for environmental and cost metrics. The optimal vehicle can be described as a hydrogen fuel cell, hybrid electric, range-extending vehicle (FCEREV).

Final Results from U.S. FCEV Learning Demonstration

The “Controlled Hydrogen Fleet and Infrastructure Demonstration and Validation Project,” also known as the National Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle Learning Demonstration, is a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) project started in 2004 and concluded in late 2011. The purpose of this project was to conduct an integrated field validation that simultaneously examined the performance of fuel cell vehicles and the supporting hydrogen fueling infrastructure. The DOE’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) received and analyzed all of the raw technical data collected by the industry partners through their participation in the project over its seven-year duration. This paper reviews highlights from the project and draws conclusions about the demonstrated status of the fuel cell vehicle and hydrogen fueling infrastructure technology. Through September 2011, 183 fuel cell electric vehicles were deployed, 25 project fueling stations were placed in use, and no fundamental safety issues were identified. We have analyzed data from more than 500,000 individual vehicle trips covering 3.5 million miles traveled and more than 150,000 kg hydrogen produced or dispensed. Public analytical results from this project are in the form of composite data products (CDPs), which aggregate individual performance to protect the intellectual property and the identity of each company while still publishing overall status and progress. Ninety-nine of these CDPs have been generated for public use and posted on NREL’s technology validation website. The results indicate that fuel cell vehicle technology continues to make rapid progress toward commercial readiness and that the fueling infrastructure technology is ready to provide a consumer-friendly fast fill and long range experience consistent with expectations of gasoline vehicle customers.

A Review of Fatigue Crack Growth for Pipeline Steels Exposed to Hydrogen.

Hydrogen pipeline systems offer an economical means of storing and transporting energy in the form of hydrogen gas. Pipelines can be used to transport hydrogen that has been generated at solar and wind farms to and from salt cavern storage locations. In addition, pipeline transportation systems will be essential before widespread hydrogen fuel cell vehicle technology becomes a reality. Since hydrogen pipeline use is expected to grow, the mechanical integrity of these pipelines will need to be validated under the presence of pressurized hydrogen. This paper focuses on a review of the fatigue crack growth response of pipeline steels when exposed to gaseous hydrogen environments. Because of defect-tolerant design principles in pipeline structures, it is essential that designers consider hydrogen-assisted fatigue crack growth behavior in these applications.

Sustainable Transport Visions: What Role for Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Vehicle Technologies?

Transport systems perform vital societal functions, but in their present state cannot be considered ‘sustainable’. Particular concerns in this respect include emissions, accidents, land use, noise and inaccessibility of amenities. Increasing attention is being focussed on hydrogen transport technologies as a possible means of achieving more sustainable transport. In this paper, we draw on expert stakeholder evidence and the wider literature to elucidate criteria for sustainable transport and determine the extent to which hydrogen transport technologies can meet these criteria. Our findings indicate that hydrogen could alleviate some of the problems in the transport sector associated with emissions and energy supply security. However, other transport problems are not mitigated – and some may even be exacerbated – by hydrogen use. Thus, we highlight the need for integrated transport policies and argue for more reflexive and inclusive societal debate about the impacts and beneficiaries of hydrogen transport technologies.

Supporting hydrogen based transportation: case studies with Global MARKAL Model

Steadily growing prices of oil and emissions coming from conventional vehicles, might force a switch to an alternative and less polluting fuel in the coming future. In this article we analyze the potential influence of selected factors for successful market penetration of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in hydrogen based private transportation economy. Using a world scale, full energy system, bottom-up, optimization model (Global MARKAL Model—GMM) we address the possibility of supporting the fuel cell vehicle technology to become competitive in the markets. In a series of optimizations we evaluate the potential influence of governmental supports and the internalization of externalities related to CO2 and local pollution emissions originating from the transportation sector, as well as preferential crediting options and demonstration projects promoting fuel cell vehicles. The results suggest that the crucial element is the price of fuel cells and their further potential to reduce costs. This reduction of costs may be triggered by governmental support such as direct subsidies to fuel cells, preferential crediting options for the buildup of hydrogen infrastructure as well as penalization of emitters of CO2 and/or local pollutants.