Design and experimental verification of a fuel cell/supercapacitor passive configuration for a light vehicle

Journal article, 2021

The fuel cell/supercapacitor passive configuration without using any DC/DC converters is promising in auto-motive applications as it can downsize the fuel cell stack, maintain the peak power capability, improve the system efficiency, and remove the need of additional control. This paper presents the design and characterization of a fuel cell/supercapacitor passive hybrid system for a 60 V light vehicle. A detailed design procedure for the passive hybrid test platform is presented with each component modelled and experimentally verified. The voltage error of the fuel cell and the supercapacitor model in the steady state is within 2% and 3%, respectively. Experimental results also validate the function of the passive configuration under conditions of a step load and a drive cycle. The simulation model of the passive hybrid system matches the measurements when a step load current is applied. The supercapacitor provides the transient current due to its smaller resistance while the fuel cell handles the steady state current, which makes it possible to downsize the fuel cell stack. For the drive cycle examined in this paper, the fuel cell stack can be downsized to one third of the load peak power.