Technical Paper
A "Hardware-Emulated" Test Analysis of a PEM-Fuel-Cell Hybrid Powertrain
2005-09-11
2005-24-040
Two testing campaigns were performed in Turin by CRF (the Fiat Research Center), and in Rome by ENEA (the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment) and the University "ROMA TRE". The work demonstrates the feature of a FC emulator to characterize fuel-cell-propelled drivetrains without employing an expensive PEM fuel cell and it points out how the vehicle fuel consumption, on a specific mission, depends on two fundamental parameters, the accordance of the FC nominal power with the requested power of the mission and the battery State-of-Charge. In the ENEA Research Center "Casaccia", near Rome, the behaviors of PEM Fuel Cells of different sizes (7, 15, 22 kW) were simulated by replacing them with a controlled AC/DC converter, this fuel cell emulator powering a full-scale hybrid drive train.