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A study on improving fuel-cell-powered vehicle efficiency using water electrolysis was conducted, proposing three methods to reduce partial load operation and recover regeneration energy, resulting in a 1.23-1.72 times increase in energy efficiency compared to conventional methods.

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What they did

System
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Abstract

Improvements in efficiency of a fuel-cell-powered vehicle have been studied using water electrolysis as the energy storage mechanism. Three methods are proposed for this purpose: 1. The reformer and fuel cell are divided into two or more units, and the maximum output of each unit is set to be small, which reduces the partial load operation, 2. all the fuel cell units are operated above the low efficiency partial load condition and excess electricity is supplied to another fuel cell unit to generate hydrogen and oxygen by water electrolysis, and these gases are compressed and stored, and arbitrary fuel cell units are supplied and they generate electricity, 3. deceleration periods perform water electrolysis of the fuel cell units using the electric power generated by the drive motor, and both gases are compressed and they store in each cylinder. The LA4 cycle (EPA urban dynamometer schedule) was introduced for the vehicle operation. The energy saving effects of the abovementioned methods were studied and were shown to increase the energy efficiency by 1.23 to 1.72 times compared to that for the conventional method.

Key findings

  • Method 1: Dividing the reformer and fuel cell into multiple units with small maximum output reduces partial load operation.
  • Method 2: Operating all fuel cell units above partial load condition and using excess electricity for water electrolysis increases efficiency.
  • Method 3: Performing water electrolysis during deceleration periods using drive motor-generated power increases energy efficiency.

Keywords

ElectrolysisAutomotive engineeringElectricityHydrogen fuelProton exchange membrane fuel cellWaste management

Identifiers

DOI
10.1115/1.1928930
Journal
Journal of Fuel Cell Science and Technology
Year
2005