Experimental Assessment of an Energy Management Strategy on a Fuel Cell Hybrid Vehicle

Fuel cell hybrid power trains comprise an energy storage to supply peaks in the power demand and to facilitate regenerative braking. In terms of control systems, the presence of storage provides additional freedom to minimize the vehicle’s fuel consumption. In a previous paper [1] an analytical solution to the energy management problem for fuel cell hybrid propulsion systems was derived and compared with existing strategies like the Equivalent Consumption Minimization Strategy (ECMS) [1–4]. An experimental study has been carried out on a Fiat Doblo, which was converted from a regular gasoline powered vehicle into a fuel cell hybrid vehicle. The fuel cell drive train comprises a 10kW proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack connected by means of a DC/DC converter to a Li-ion battery. The aforementioned analytical energy management strategy was used during the experiments. The experiments were carried out on a roller test bench and on the road. The experiments were conducted not only to validate the energy management strategy and the underlying models but also to establish its practical value. The paper shortly reviews the energy management problem and solution. Next the vehicle and its fuel cell hybrid drive train are presented as well as the experimental setup. The paper finishes by stating the experimental results and the conclusions.