Hydrogen Fuel Cell Road Vehicles: State of the Art and Perspectives

Abstract

Driven by a small number of niche markets and several decades of application research, fuel cell systems (FCS) are gradually reaching maturity, to the point where many players are questioning the interest and intensity of its deployment in the transport sector in general. This article aims to shed light on this debate from the road transport perspective. It focuses on the description of the fuel cell vehicle (FCV) in order to understand its assets, limitations and current paths of progress. These vehicles are basically hybrid systems combining a fuel cell and a lithium-ion battery, and different architectures are emerging among manufacturers, who adopt very different levels of hybridization. The main opportunity of Fuel Cell Vehicles is clearly their design versatility based on the decoupling of the choice of the number of Fuel Cell modules and hydrogen tanks. This enables manufacturers to meet various specifications using standard products. Upcoming developments will be in line with the crucial advantage of Fuel Cell Vehicles: intensive use in terms of driving range and load capacity. Over the next few decades, long-distance heavy-duty vehicles and fleets of taxis or delivery vehicles will develop based on range extender or mild hybrid architectures and enable the hydrogen sector to mature the technology from niche markets to a large-scale market.

Modelling Methods and Validation Techniques for CFD Simulations of PEM Fuel Cells

“…According to the European climate policy, this means complete decarbonisation of the mobility sector by 2050, with several intermediate steps and emission targets [1,2]. While there is a strong trend to electrify passenger cars to fulfil future emission legislation, technical solutions for other mobility sectors, like longhaul transport, off-road applications, and air-and ship-traffic, are not straightforward [3]. The requirement of a high amount of stored onboard energy in conjunction with the weight and volume of current battery solutions necessitates research on alternatives.…”

Hydrogen Fuel Cell Road Vehicles and Their Infrastructure: An Option towards an Environmentally Friendly Energy Transition

“…Many commercially available direct hydrogen FC electric vehicles are light vehicles. Single on-board FCS power reaches up to 100 kW [2]. Since the FCV market is also focused on high load capacities, the same manufacturers are looking to extend the developed products to heavy industrial vehicles such as trucks and buses (Figure 1).…”

“…Among the many examples of heavy-duty vehicles currently being deployed is the Businova bus developed by the French manufacturer Safra in association with Symbio and Michelin groups (Figure 1a). This bus has a capacity of around 100 seats and is powered by a range extender architecture [2]. The 250 kW drive train is powered both by a 132 kWh lithium-ion battery and a 30 kW FCS drawing its hydrogen from four tanks carrying up to 30 kg of gaseous H 2 at 350 bar.…”

“…On the other hand, Hyundai chose a mid-power architecture for its 33-tonne Xcient FC heavy goods vehicle (HGV) [2,7]. Hyundai connects two 95 kW FCSs in parallel and carries seven 700 kg tanks capable of storing 35 kg of H 2 .…”

“…This explains, amongst other things, why electricity companies are developing new distribution business models which determines kWh cost on the basis of peak usage (assessed on a few minutes range) making network punctual charging extremely expensive. In that respect, heavy road transportation and cars with intensive-use (e.g., taxis and delivery vans) are identified as the FCV key sectors in the future zero emission vehicles market [2].…”