Proton exchange membrane fuel cell system integration, modeling, and simulation for energy-efficient electric vehicle
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posted on 2024-07-15, 04:24authored byI Jahan, M Ahsan Kabir, M Mahadi Hasan, R Islam, Md Abul Kalam AzadMd Abul Kalam Azad, M Saddam Hossain Khan, O Farrok, M Sawkat Ali
The increasing price of conventional fossil fuels and their harmful impacts on climate change have led to an interest in the production and utilization of electric vehicles in the transport sector. Hydrogen fuel cells (FCs) are extensively used as a power source for electric vehicles because they are cheap to produce, easy to transport, and leave behind just water as a byproduct of their usage in FCs during power generation. This study presents an energy-efficient fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) where a 12kW and 50V proton exchange fuel cells (membrane FC is used as a power source and a separately excited direct current (DC) motor is used as a traction motor. Performance analysis of the FCEV, including motor efficiency, stack efficiency, fuel consumption, air consumption, and stack voltage, is also presented. The FC stack's output voltage is increased using the boost converter because the voltage is too low to run the motor. Two DC-DC boost converters are used: One is for field excitation, and the other is for the armature. The test setup is simulated using MATLAB/Simulink software. Two different-rated DC motors are used to form two FCEVs. The performance of the FCEV is observed and compared in terms of outputs of the stack and the motor. In this chapter, the base design of the FCEV is denoted by FCEV-2, and FCEV-1 is the proposed one. From the comparison, it is found that FCEV-1 outperforms FCEV-2 through the proper selection of motor parameters.