Control and Optimization of Fuel Cell Based Powertrain for Automotive Applications

Fuel cell powered electric vehicles, with fast-refueling time, high energy density, and zero CO2 emissions, are becoming a promising solution for future fossil-free transportation. However, the relatively slow dynamic response and the inability of recovering the regenerative energy make vehicles solely powered by fuel cells not an immediately attractive solution. Instead, hybrid vehicles powered by fuel cells combined with energy buffers such as batteries and supercapacitors could be of more interest. Due to the unique characteristics of each energy buffer, the vehicle performance may vary with the hybrid energy storage system configuration. This thesis performs a comprehensive study on various energy storage configurations for applications in fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles. This thesis first examines the fuel cell/supercapacitor passive hybrid configuration where the fuel cell and supercapacitor share the same DC-link voltage. The power distribution between them is inherently determined by their internal resistances. Therefore, the DC-link voltage varies and depends on the vehicle power demand. In this work, a fuel cell/supercapacitor passive hybrid powertrain is first modeled and evaluated. Simulation results show that the energy efficiency is 53%–71% during propulsion and 84%–94% during braking, respectively. Moreover, a 3 kW lab-scale fuel cell/supercapacitor passive hybrid system is designed and investigated. Experimental results show that the fuel cell takes time to respond to a load change, while the supercapacitor provides the transient power, which makes it possible to downsize the fuel cell.Since the passive configuration loses the active controllability, this thesis further considers a fully-active fuel cell/supercapacitor system to improve the controllability of the power distribution. This configuration requires a boost converter for the fuel cell and a buck-boost converter for the supercapacitor. In this work, an adaptive power split method is used to smooth the fuel cell current and prevent the supercapacitor from exceeding its lower and upper charge limits. The cut-off frequency of the low-pass filter is adaptively controlled by the spectrum area ratio. Experimental results show that the supercapacitor state-of-charge is effectively controlled within the desired range. Moreover, a load disturbance compensator is proposed and demonstrated to improve the control performance such that the DC-link voltage fluctuation caused by the load current variation is significantly reduced.This thesis also investigates the cost-effectiveness of different energy buffers hybridized with fuel cells in various trucking applications. First, a chance-constraint co-design optimization problem is formulated. Convex modeling steps are presented to show that the problem can be decomposed and solved using convex programming. Results show that the power rating of the electric machine can be dramatically reduced when the delivered power is satisfied in a probabilistic sense. Moreover, the hybridization of fuel cells with lithium-ion batteries results in the lowest cost while the vehicle using lithium-ion capacitors as the energy buffer can carry the heaviest payload. This work also develops a robust co-design optimization framework considering the uncertainties in parameters (e.g., vehicle movement) and design decision variables (e.g., scaling factors of fuel cells and batteries). Results show that these uncertainties might propagate to uncertainties in state variables (e.g., battery energy) and optimization variables (e.g., battery power), leading to a larger battery capacity and therefore a higher total cost in robust optimal solutions. In summary, this thesis performs a comprehensive study on control and optimization of fuel cell based powertrains for automotive applications. This will provide a guidance on component selection and sizing, as well as powertrain system configuration and optimization for design of fuel cell powered electric vehicles

Combined design and control optimization of hybrid vehicles

Hybrid vehicles play an important role in reducing energy consumption and pollutant emissions of ground transportation. The increased mechatronic system complexity, however, results in a heavy challenge for efficient component sizing and power coordination among multiple power sources. This chapter presents a convex programming framework for the combined design and control optimization of hybrid vehicles. An instructive and straightforward case study of design and energy control optimization for a fuel cell/supercapacitor hybrid bus is delineated to demonstrate the effectiveness and the computational advantage of the convex programming methodology. Convex modeling of key components in the fuel cell/supercapactior hybrid powertrain is introduced, while a pseudo code in CVX is also provided to elucidate how to practically implement the convex optimization. The generalization, applicability, and validity of the convex optimization framework are also discussed for various powertrain configurations (i.e., series, parallel, and series-parallel), different energy storage systems (e.g., battery, supercapacitor, and dual buffer), and advanced vehicular design and controller synthesis accounting for the battery thermal and aging conditions. The proposed methodology is an efficient tool that is valuable for researchers and engineers in the area of hybrid vehicles to address realistic optimal control problems

PEMFC Optimization Strategy with Auxiliary Power Source in Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle

one of the present-day implementation of fuel cell is acting as main power source in Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle (FCHV). This paper proposes some strategies to optimize the performance of Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) implanted with auxiliary power source to construct a proper FCHV hybridization. The strategies consist of the most updated optimization method determined from three point of view i.e. Energy Storage System (ESS), hybridization topology and control system analysis. The goal of these strategies is to achieve an optimum hybridization with long lifetime, low cost, high efficiency, and hydrogen consumption rate improvement. The energy storage system strategy considers battery, supercapacitor, and high-speed flywheel as the most promising alternative auxiliary power source. The hybridization topology strategy analyzes the using of multiple storage devices injected with electronic components to bear a higher fuel economy and cost saving. The control system strategy employs nonlinear control system to optimize the ripple factor of the voltage and the current and using the AOC-EMS system to improve the hydrogen consumption rate. ECMS and BERS strategy based on Time-Triggered Controller Area Network (TTCAN) also promoted to optimize hydrogen consumption rate from recovered kinetic energy while in braking regeneration mode

Power sources coordination through multivariable LPV/Hinf control with application to multi-source electric vehicles

International audienceIn this paper the problem of multi-source power sharing strategy within electric vehicles is considered. Three different kinds of power sources - fuel cell, battery and supercapacitor - compose the power supply system, where all sources are current-controlled and paralleled together with their associated DC-DC converters on a common DC-link. The DC-link voltage must be regulated regardless of load variations corresponding to the driving cycle. The proposed strategy is a robust control solution using a MIMO LPV/H-inf controller which provides the three current references with respect to source frequency characteristics. The selection of the weighting functions is guided by a genetic algorithm whose optimization criterion expresses the frequency separation requirements. A reduced-order version of the LPV/H-inf controller is also proposed to handle an embedded implementation with limited computational burden. The nonlinear multi-source system is simulated in MATLAB® / Simulink® using two different types of driving cycles: the driving cycle of IFSTTAR (Institut Français des Sciences et Technologies des Transports, de l'Aménagement et des Réseaux) and a constant load profile used in order to illustrate system steady-state behaviour. Simulation results show good performance in supplying the load at constant DC-link voltage according to user-configured frequency-separation power sharing strategy. When assessed against the classical-PI-based filtering strategy taken as base-line, the proposed strategy offers the possibility of integrating a variety of constraints into a systematic design procedure, whose result guarantees stability and performance robustness

Enhancing Performance of Hybrid Electric Vehicle using Optimized Energy Management Methodology

The fuel consumption and the fuel management strategy (PMS) of the hybrid electric vehicle are closely linked (HEV). In this study, a hybrid power management technique and an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference (ANFIS) method are established. Artificial intelligence represents a huge improvement in electricity management across different energy sources (AI). The main energy source of the hybrid power supply is a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), while its electrical storage devices are a battery bank and an ultracapacitor. The hybrid electric vehicle's power management strategy (PMS) and fuel consumption are closely related (HEV). In this paper, an adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference and hybrid power management strategy (ANFIS) approach is developed. A significant advance in electricity management across multiple energy sources is artificial intelligence (AI). The proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) serves as the primary energy source of the hybrid power supply, and the ultracapacitor and battery bank serve as its electrical storage components

Hybrid fuel cell-supercapacitor system: modeling and energy management using Proteus

The increasing adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) presents a promising solution for achieving sustainable transportation and reducing carbon emissions. To keep pace with technological advancements in the vehicular industry, this paper proposes the development of a hybrid energy storage system (HESS) and an energy management strategy (EMS) for EVs, implemented using Proteus Spice Ver 8. The HESS consists of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) as the primary source and a supercapacitor (SC) as the secondary source. The EMS, integrated into an electronic board based on the STM32, utilizes a low-pass filter algorithm to distribute energy between the sources. The accuracy of the proposed PEMFC and SC models is validated by comparing Proteus simulation results with experimental tests conducted on the Bahia didactic bench and Maxwell SC bench, respectively. To optimize energy efficiency, simulations of the HESS system involve adjusting the hybridization rate through changes in the cutoff frequency. The analysis compares the state-of-charge (SOC) of the SC and the voltage efficiency of the fuel cell (FC), across different frequencies to optimize overall system performance. The results highlight that the chosen strategy satisfies the energy demand while preserving the FC’s dynamic performance and optimizing its utilization to the maximum

An adaptive power split strategy with a load disturbance compensator for fuel cell/supercapacitor powertrains

Electric vehicles powered by fuel cell and supercapacitor hybrid power sources are of great interest. However, the power allocation between each power source is challenging and the DC bus voltage fluctuation is relatively significant in cascaded PI control schemes. This paper develops a power control strategy with an adjustable cut-off frequency, using an artificial potential field, to adaptively split the load current between the fuel cell and the supercapacitor under various load conditions. The adaptive cut-off frequency is calculated by cutting the load frequency spectrum with an allocation ratio that changes with the supercapacitor state of charge. Therefore, the relatively lower frequency portion of the load current is provided by the fuel cell and the supercapacitor handles the higher frequency portion. To enhance the control performance of the DC bus voltage regulation against the load disturbance, a load disturbance compensator is introduced to suppress the DC bus voltage fluctuation when the load variation occurs, which is implemented by a feed-forward controller that can compensate the load current variation in advance. The effectiveness of the proposed strategy is validated by extensive experiments

Energy Efficiency Comparison of Hybrid Powertrain Systems for Fuel-Cell-Based Electric Vehicles

Fuel cell electric vehicles have great superiorities in endurance mileage, charging speed and climate tolerance compared to battery electric vehicles. However, a supercapacitor or battery bank is required to maintain a fast-dynamic response, which leads to several hybridization structures for fuel-cell-based electric vehicles due to the unique characteristics of each device, and their performances are also differing. The purpose of this paper is to provide a comprehensive comparison of hybrid powertrain systems for three types of powertrains: fuel cell/supercapacitor passive hybrid, fuel cell/supercapacitor semi-active hybrid, and fuel cell/battery semi-active hybrid. Each powertrain component model is developed from the real components wherever possible, and Honda FCX Clarity fuel cell vehicle is studied as the benchmark. The powertrain energy efficiency under Worldwide harmonized Light vehicles Test Cycle (WLTC) is analyzed and evaluated. The simulation results show that three powertrains have the same energy consumption, and fuel cell/supercapacitor passive hybrid powertrain increases the system efficiency by 2% and 4% in propulsion and regenerative braking, respectively. By contrast, the other two powertrain topologies have similar performance in terms of energy efficiency

Prioritizing Power demand response for Hydrogen PEMFC-Electric Vehicles using Hybrid Energy Storage

PEMFC powered Hybrid vehicle system is one of an interesting issue for the industry due to its high performances. The PEMFC cannot certainly ensure a sustained required energy in some scenarios. To solve this problem related to PEMFC transient response, a Hybrid Electrical Storage System (HES) is a potential candidate for a solution. The proposed Hybrid Storage system is comprised of the battery (BT) and a Super-Capacitor (SC) components. These components are included to control the hydrogen variations and the fast peak powers scenarios respectively. The SC is used to control PEMFC and the BT slow dynamics at the same times. An accurate Multi-Ways Energy Management System (MW-EMS) is proposed which aims to cooperate with the system components through SC/BT state of charge and a flux calculation. The simulation results are discussed and assessed using  MATLAB/ Simulink