Project Description

FC-IMPACT is the name for "Increasing Market Penetration of FC Cars by efficient system solutions".

With the goal of decarbonizing vehicles, the automotive industry is undergoing a fundamental change and is shifting from fossil fuel-powered to electric drivetrains. While the number of battery electric vehicles is already increasing rapidly, also fuel cell vehicles are expected to play a significant role in the future’s transportation sector.

They offer some important advantages over battery-driven vehicles, such as fast refill and high energy density, making them an interesting alternative especially when long driving ranges are of interest and in the heavy-duty sector. However, only a few fuel cell vehicles can be seen on the streets at the moment because of high acquisition and operating costs.

schematic diagram of car chassis with battery equipment

Project Goal

This project aims to increase the marketability and attractiveness of fuel cell passenger cars by increasing the overall energy efficiency, extending the fuel cell stack durability, and reducing the cost of the complete fuel cell system. The project outcome is not just limited to theoretical results. Developments will be implemented in a demonstrator vehicle and finally tested over six months.

Our team focuses on developing sophisticated control strategies, which consider improving both the fuel efficiency and stack durability besides ensuring the safe drivability of the vehicle.

The Overall Control Task

The overall control task is divided into two levels.

  1. At high-level, the energy management system (EMS) is responsible for efficiently distributing the vehicle power demand over the fuel cell and the battery, which is needed to cover dynamic power requests. Here, promising results have been achieved by incorporating predictive data from planned routes.
  2. At low-level, the fuel cell control unit (FCCU) manages the operation of the fuel cell system. Here, a model predictive controller has been developed, offering considerable efficiency improvements over simple PI controllers. Ultimately, the interaction of the two control levels will be studied to exploit efficiency potentials to the fullest.

Video Presentation

Interested in more information?

Watch our project video on this exciting topic!

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Video Title: FC-IMPACT - Increasing market penetration of FC cars by efficient system solutions

Publication

Du, Zhang Peng, Christoph Steindl, Stefan Jakubek, and Christoph Hametner. "Concentration Estimation for Fuel Cells: Design of Experiments, Nonlinear Identification, and Observer Design with Experimental Validation., opens an external URL in a new window" IEEE Access (2023).

Cooperation Partners

Duration

  • October 2020 - September 2023

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Contact

Univ.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr.techn. Stefan Jakubek

Send email to Stefan Jakubek