Innovative fuel cell system for medium-size segment

Abstract

The automotive industry is facing the challenge to realize the turn over to a climate-neutral mobility. The use of fuel cell powertrains is a promising way. Especially the short duration for refuelling in combination with an acceptable range and the separation of energy production and the refuelling process, show the advantages of the powertrain technology against the battery electric vehicle for the customer. Current vehicle concepts use PEM based fuel cells, which provide in combination with low battery capacities the power for the electric motor. The efficiency of the entire powertrain is influenced on the one hand by the design of the fuel cell and the battery size and on the other hand by the dynamic power split.

The current series standard of powertrain topologies are fuel cell vehicles with a big fuel cell system and a small battery size. These powertrains show advantages regarding maximum speed and performance. Due to their size, these powertrains show big challenges in terms of complexity, costs and durability. IAV used their 0D/1D simulation framework to lay out a fuel cell based hybrid powertrain (fuel cell system and battery) with a very long range and high durability for the use in a medium-size passenger car. Beside the long range, also very low costs are possible by the use of a small stack, less components and a low effort for the calibration of the fuel cell system. This powertrain is simulated by different cycles to show the performance in terms of different target values.