Thermal Control for Electric Vehicle Based on the Multistack Fuel Cells

International audiencePollution, global climate change, and the scarcity of fossil fuelreserves have forced the automotive industry to step up itsresearch efforts on clean fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). Infact, these systems can be considered relatively pollution-freesystems, with zero greenhouse gas emissions and higher efficiencythan traditional vehicles. FCEVs typically use two sources ofenergy, fuel cells (FCs) and supercapacitors (SCs). One of the mainissues with FCs is keeping the temperature between 60 and 90 °C.Herein, a strategy for controlling the temperature of the FC isproposed. Its objective is to achieve two main goals: the first isreducing the time and energy required to reach the optimumtemperature, and the second is maintaining the temperature of theFC in the ideal range during operation. A Simulink/MATLAB model isestablished to determine the efficiency of the proposed system. Theresults show that at low ambient temperatures, the FC can be heatedwithin 6 min, moreover the system allows cooling the FC and keepingits temperature in the ideal range