Energy management strategies for fuel cell-hybrid vehicles

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis and a comparative study between three new proposed Energy Management Strategies oriented to Fuel Cell-Hybrid Vehicles (FCHVs). The vehicle in study is powered by a fuel cell and a supercapacitor bank that can be charged both from the fuel cell and from the load trough regenerative braking. The proposed strategies were tested using a FCHV model elaborated employing ADVISOR toolbox in Matlab. A comparative of the hydrogen consumptions is performed with respect to the optimal case, which is estimated assuming that the entire future driving load demand is known. The results indicate that it is possible to achieve a performance close to the optimal case without knowing the driving cycle a priori. In addition to the hydrogen economy improvement, the strategies allow reducing the fuel cell stack dimension with the consequent reduction in the production costs.