IV.

FUEL CELL–BASED PROPULSION SYSTEMS

Today’s Automotive industry primary goal is to find an alternative to internal combustion engine vehicles
(ICEVs) to match the increasing needs and demands of consumers all over the world. The main criteria for
the selection of alternatives of the ICEs are that the selected option should more efficient and cleaner and
must be less expensive to manufacture and operate. In this context, the automotive industry is bidding on
two major automotive technologies, namely, the hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) and fuel cell vehicle (FCV).
Fuel cells for propulsion applications has the potential for superior efficiency and nearly zero emissions
which has attracted the interest of Automotive Industry since, fuel cells can also be a replacement for high
voltage batteries in HEV applications. In the last 10 years, the efficiency and emissions benefits of fuel cells
in the transportation sector have been realized and is being researched upon. Among different types of fuel
cells, the proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells and solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), had grabbed the
interest of automotive companies and are being considered as the prototype fuel cell cars and buses. The
PEM fuel cell is considered for automotive propulsion, because of its low temperature operation and faster
response. SOFC is meant for on-board power generation applications.
The primary fuel cell applications are more specific to light-duty passenger cars and heavy-duty buses.
Other than propulsion applications, fuel cells can also be a good option to provide auxiliary power,
particularly for heavy-duty diesel trucks. These auxiliary power units (APU) based on fuel cell could supply
power for the various hotel or comfort loads within the vehicle such as televisions, air-conditioners,
computers etc.
Working principle of Fuel Cell-Based Vehicle Systems:
The hydrocarbon fuel (e.g. gasoline or methanol) is first processed to obtain the hydrogen using a reformer
(A type of a fuel processor). The hydrogen rich gas produced in the reformer is then fed to the anodes of the
fuel cell. Pressurized cylinder can also be used to store the hydrogen on-board the vehicle instead of using
the reformer for converting the fuel to hydrogen rich gas. The oxygen (or air) is fed to the cathodes of the
fuel cell. Using fuel cell stack configuration, and the flow of hydrogen and oxygen, the fuel cell stack
produces the dc output voltage. The output from the fuel cell stack is supplied to the power conditioner to
obtain the required output voltage and current. Ideally. The power conditioner must have minimal losses for
higher efficiency which can be higher than 90%.
For heavy-duty vehicles, the three major fuel cell bus technologies are phosphoric acid fuel cells (PAFC),
direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC), and direct hydrogen fuel cells (DHFC). Among these, the PAFC and
DMFC make use of hybridized power system where a lead-acid or nickel/cadmium (Ni, Cd) battery pack is
connected in parallel with the fuel cell in order to supply the peak power demands and to take advantage of
regenerative braking. A typical arrangement of a hybrid fuel cell/battery power system applicable to both the
PAFC/battery hybrid bus as well as the DMFC/battery hybrid bus