The development of warm-up control strategies for a methanol reformer fuel cell vehicle 2000-05-0330

A fuel-cell-powered vehicle requires a plentiful supply of hydrogen to achieve good performance. This can be produced from methanol via an on-board reformer and gas clean-up unit. Since the reformer can take several minutes to reach its operating temperature, it is initially necessary to provide an alternative power source, such as a battery or ultra-capacitor, in order to drive the vehicle. This paper describes the use of a fuel cell vehicle simulation to predict behavior over a drive cycle from a cold start and to evaluate different warm-up control strategies in terms of performance and fuel efficiency.