Passive fuel cell/lithium-ion capacitor hybridization for vehicular applications

Electric recreational vehicles represent a new challenge in terms of power supply systems compared to the current light-duty electric vehicles, which achieve high performance and long-range. The recreational vehicles need to heed the limited dimension requirements while assuring the high requested power. This paper proposes an integration of Lithium-Ion Capacitor (LIC) with Fuel Cell (FC) without any power electronic device for a three-wheel electric motorcycle. Unlike other hybrid power supply systems, the proposed FC-LIC passive configuration is lighter, compact, more efficient, and simpler to implement. Due to the different impedance of the components the system is self-management, in which FC supplies the average power component and LIC operates as a low-pass filter. In this respect, a simulator is built based on experimental tests to study the system performance in terms of hydrogen consumption and FC degradation. Subsequently, the system is tested under three standard motorcycle driving cycles at three different FC system lifespan stages. The obtained results demonstrate that a passive topology can supply the requested power along different FC stages of life and reported just an increment of 12% of hydrogen consumption at the oldest condition compared to the new condition.     

Exergy analysis of the diesel pre-reforming solid oxide fuel cell system with anode off-gas recycling in the SchIBZ project. Part I: Modeling and validation

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) systems with anode off-gas recirculation (AGR) and diesel pre-reforming are advantageous because they can operate with the current fuel infrastructure. In the SchIBZ-project, the prototype of such a SOFC system for maritime applications has already been commissioned. In this first paper, we model the system devices to conduct an exergy analysis of this real SOFC plant and validate them with experimental values from experiments in laboratory scale. The results of our simulation agree well with the experimental values. The calculations with the validated results may be closer to the real thermodynamic behavior of such system components than previous literature.     

Optimal parameter identification for the proton exchange membrane fuel cell using Satin Bowerbird optimizer

This study proposes precise modeling for the proton exchange membrane fuel cells which present desirable advantages compared with other energy management systems. The presented model can be applied for the simulation of the actual behavior of the proton exchange membrane fuel cells such as the electrical, electrochemical, and mechanical. In the present literature, a newly presented optimizer namely Satin Bowerbird is implemented for the evaluation of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell performance criteria. The Satin Bowerbird optimizer is an evolutionary algorithm that imitates the mating process of the Bowerbirds in the mating season. The Satin Bowerbird optimizer is applied to the different commercial benchmark of proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack to assess the performance of the proposed algorithm. The statistical study is also carried out to show the superiority of the proposed method compared with other schemes. The standard deviation for the Satin Bowerbird optimizer is obtained 0.0941 which is the lowest value amongst the other well‐known approaches. Also, the lowest sum of squared error is calculated for the proposed algorithm. Moreover, the validation of the presented method is done with the experimental data which shows good agreement between the experimental and modeling data.     

Durability of a niobium thin film for bipolar plates in PEMFC

The durability of a niobium (Nb) thin film deposited on AISI 316L by magnetron sputtering was investigated in simulated polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) environments. The result of a potentiostatic test in a simulated corrosion environment showed that the current densities of the cathode and anode were 1.56 × 10⁻⁷ and -7.2 × 10⁻⁷ A/cm², respectively.Before and after the potentiostatic test, the value of the interfacial contact resistance (ICR) increased 40.1 mΩ cm² at 1.5 MPa. The cell performance observed with the Nb-bipolar plate (BP) was slightly decreased compared to the commercial graphite-BP over this test period. After a 300 h durability test, cell performance of the Nb-BP unit cell was slightly decreased by 5.4% at a current density of 400 mA/cm².     

Effect of the doping time of the 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium ionic liquid cation on the Nafion membrane proprieties

Nafion membranes were prepared by incorporating in the polymer matrix the 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium (BMI⁺) ionic liquid cation at different doping levels. Increasing the doping time of the membranes with the ionic liquid results in increased incorporation of the BMI⁺ cation but a decrease in the bulk conductivity. The thermogravimetric analysis shows that the BMI⁺ cation incorporation increases the thermal stability of the membranes. The higher discharge efficiency of the fuel cell at 80°C was obtained by using Nafion membrane after 15 minutes of doping in the ionic liquid solution.     

Influence of nitrogen doping on carbon nanotubes towards the structure,composition and oxygen reduction reaction

Nitrogen-doped carbon nanotubes (NCNTs) as noble-metal free catalysts were synthesised via chemical vapour deposition using iron (II) phthalocyanine as a metal catalyst for growth of the nanotubes. The synthesis process was performed in one step in a tube furnace using different chemical precursors (aniline, diethylamine and ethylenediamine) as nitrogen sources. The NCNT samples were physically characterised using scanning electron microscopy, transmission electronic microscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. Cyclic voltammetry measurements were conducted to investigate the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR), and they showed that the electrocatalytic activities depend on the structural and morphological changes in the NCNTs. The results showed that NCNTs synthesised from ethylenediamine precursors exhibit an ORR scheme proceed via indirect four electron transfer process in acidic media, which implies that these NCNTs are a candidate for serving as the cathodic catalyst in PEMFCs. The highly active NCNTs possess unique characteristics, including a high concentration of surface defects with high pyridinic-N and pyridinic-N-oxides configurations that serve as active sites for ORR activity in acidic media.     

台湾氢能燃料电池产业之发展

由于氢能具有无污染、安全度高等特点,随着能源供需及国际高油价情势的演变,已被国际能源总署(IEA)规划为未来主要的能源利用形态。基于对降低温室气体排放与空气污染,台湾因具机车与电子产品生产优势,在推动燃料电池应用方面,亦积极投入小型质子交换膜燃料电池发电系统之研发,目前已建立1kW移动式燃料电池发电系统、3kW及5kW多重进料重组器之热电共生燃料电池发电系统;在3C电子产品DMFC应用方面也有很好的成果。     

An experimental and analytical comparison study of power management methodologies of fuel cell-battery hybrid vehicles

The implementation of fuel cell vehicles requires a supervisory control strategy that manages the power distribution between the fuel cell and the energy storage device. Some of the current problems with power management strategies are: fuel efficiency optimization methods require prior knowledge of the driving cycle before they can be implemented, the impact on the fuel cell and battery life cycle are not considered and finally, there are no standardized measures to evaluate the performance of different control methods. In addition to that, the performances of different control methods for power management have not been directly compared using the same mathematical models. The proposed work will present a different optimization approach that uses fuel mass flow rate instead of fuel mass consumption as the cost function and thus, it can be done instantaneously and does not require knowledge of the driving cycle ahead of time. Also this study presents an experimental approach to validate the mathematical simulation results.     

空冷型质子交换膜燃料电池实验研究

对实验室自制的空冷型质子交换膜燃料电池(PEMFC)在不同工况时的稳定性、负载阶跃响应、单体电池电压分布以及表面温度分布开展了实验研究。实验结果表明:定期阳极排气可维持空冷型PEMFC长时间稳定运行;大负载条件下,单体电池电压分布均匀性降低,呈现两边高、中间低的现象;电池组温度分布与单体电池电压分布具有一致性。该工作对于空冷型PEMFC性能研究以及燃料电池系统效率提升具有一定的指导和参考价值。     

基于AMESim的燃料电池系统低温起动仿真

当前燃料电池汽车受到越来越多的关注,而燃料电池汽车商业化前还有很多问题亟需解决,其中燃料电池系统低温起动便是一个重点难题。使用AMESim软件建立了一个燃料电池一维系统模型,针对燃料电池系统恒电压和恒电流低温起动过程进行了研究。研究发现,较低的起动电压和较高的起动电流更有利于低温起动过程,且恒电压起动比恒电流起动更具优势。