Fuel Cell Powered Vehicles

Abstract

Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are considered as one of the best sustainable transportation solutions that have the potential to significantly reduce our dependence on fossil oil and lower harmful emissions. This chapter reviews and discusses different powertrain arrangements and onboard hydrogen storage technologies in a fuel cell vehicle and various hydrogen generation and refueling approaches. Optimal varying pressure operation of a fuel cell system is studied. Compared to fixed pressure operation, optimal operation shows higher system efficiency over the full load range. However, optimal operation of a fuel cell system requires coordinated reactant flow control in both cathode and anode sides to minimize the mechanical stress on the MEA . Hybridization of the vehicle powertrain is an effective approach to mitigate the stress on the fuel cell stack by shifting most of the dynamic power demand to a second power source such as batteries and/or ultracapacitors. Different power splitting strategies in a hybrid fuel cell vehicle are discussed. Simulations over various driving cycles are performed to compare fuel cell vehicles with other advanced technology vehicles in terms of fuel savings.

Control Strategy Assessment for Improving PEM Fuel Cell System Efficiency in Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicles

“…Most of the time, the energy storage system is either a battery or a supercapacitor, but there are many different ways to put the power sources together. According to [7,8], the possible configurations of a FCV powertrain are: (1) without electrical energy storage (FCV), (2) with supercapacitors directly connected to the fuel cell (Fuel Cell Electric Vehicle-FCEV) and, (3) with energy storage unit coupled in parallel with the fuel cell through a DC/DC converter (Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle-FCHV). Fuel cell vehicles have a basic construction and do not add much weight to the vehicle, but because of the delayed power response of the fuel cell, they need a higher power fuel cell stack and quick hydrogen/air delivery systems in order to satisfy the power requirements.…”

MnO2 nanosheets as a high-efficiency electrocatalyst for H2O2 reduction in alkaline medium

“…Fuel cells (FCs), devices directly converting the chemical energy of a fuel into electrical energy, are highly desirable with the depletion of fossil fuels and the ever increasing demands for clean energy. [1][2][3] Compared with lithium batteries, FCs have intrinsic advantages in power density and energy supply, which make them promising for use in spaceships, 4 underwater, 5 hybrid vehicles 6 energy supplying devices and so on. Hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) has been seen as a viable oxidizer for liquidbased FCs, such as metal semi-FCs, 7,8 direct borohydridehydrogen peroxide FCs, [9][10][11][12][13][14] direct peroxide-peroxide FCs, 15,16 direct methanol-hydrogen peroxide FCs and so on.…”