Energy management strategy for hybrid fuel cell vehicle

International audienceFuel cell vehicles (FCV) are characterized by the utilization of a hydrogen fuel cell (FC) stack as the primary energy source. They also use, on the same electric bus, a storage element (e.g. batteries) for energy storage. In our project, the fuel cell is a Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM), which is well adapted for applications in the field of transportation. A lithium rechargeable battery, more specifically a LiFePO4, is used to supplement the FC over the driving cycle. According to the requirements of the drive cycle of the vehicle, a 30 kW PEM FC system and a 7 kWh LiFePO4 battery are considered here. To define the power supplied by the source and the energy storage system, an energy management system (EMS) is used. A power split strategy is implemented in the EMS in order to obtain an optimal behavior for the vehicle in terms of hydrogen consumption and considering the constraints of the system (FC and battery dynamics). Due to the non-linear FC dynamics, a non-linear control is applied which results in a simplification of the optimization problem