Electric turbocharger for fuel cells - IHI´s contribution to sustainable mobility

Towards a carbon free society the IHI group is committed to provide products, technologies and services in line with ecological and economical sustainability. Storage and transportation of green energy are major challenges related to the global transition from fossil fuels towards 100% renewables. IHI is active in various areas ranging from SOFC technology via ammonia combustion to smart community demonstrator projects. With respect to mobility hydrogen fuel cell technology is identified as one major pillar for CO2-neutral vehicular propulsion – especially for higher payloads and extended driving distances. Since more than 20 years IHI is providing charging systems for stationary fuel cell applications and since 2004 also for mobile fuel cell applications. IHI´s oil free turbocharger for fuel cell applications is providing state-of-the-art boosting technology to enable emission free propulsion systems. It comprises a turbine, a compressor and, on the same shaft, an electric motor as well as air foil bearings to support the rotor. The turbine utilizes the enthalpy from the stack exhaust to lower the required electric power for driving the compressor. It can provide up to 40% of the needed compressor power and hence substantially increases the system efficiency. Compressor and turbine are optimized for operating conditions in fuel cell systems regarding specified airflow and pressure ratio, which is typically in the range of 3.0

On Mixed Flow Turbines for Automotive Turbocharger Applications

Due to increased demands for improved fuel economy of passenger cars, low-end and part-load performance is of key importance for the design of automotive turbocharger turbines. In an automotive drive cycle, a turbine which can extract more energy at high pressure ratios and lower rotational speeds is desirable. In the literature it is typically found that radial turbines provide peak efficiency at speed ratios of 0.7, but at high pressure ratios and low rotational speeds the blade speed ratio will be low and the rotor will experience high values of positive incidence at the inlet. Based on fundamental considerations, it is shown that mixed flow turbines offer substantial advantages for such applications. Moreover, to prove these considerations an experimental assessment of mixed flow turbine efficiency and optimal blade speed ratio is presented. This has been achieved using a new semi-unsteady measurement approach. Finally, evidence of the benefits of mixed flow turbine behaviour in engine operation is given. Regarding turbocharged engine simulation, the benefit of wide-ranging turbine map measurement data as well as the need for reasonable turbine map extrapolation is illustrated