24
FEMAG-C Serial hybrid generator for electric city cars 14th Annual International Symposium Hybrid Small Fuel Cells 2012 Domenico Serpella LABOR S.r.l. (ITALY) Boston, July 18th 2012
FEMAG-C
Serial hybrid generator for electric city cars
14th Annual International Symposium
Hybrid Small Fuel Cells 2012
Domenico Serpella
LABOR S.r.l. (ITALY)
Boston, July 18th 2012
EXPLORA BIOTECH
Pioneering Nature
EXPLORA BIOTECH
Pioneering Nature
PLANTAROM
TRS
OPT SENSOR
Research & Development
TechnologyVentures
Brussels
Spain
USA
Finding a way or making one Finding a way or making one Finding a way or making one Finding a way or making one Finding a way or making one
Media Pharma
Innovation Services
Create innovations to improve people’s
lives and opportunities of business
enterprises
To be the reference for all those who
want to create value through
innovation and technology transfer
Finding a way or making one
Finding a way or making one
� Electronics and Automation:
with a mechanical workshop for prototypes manufacturing
Finding a way or making one
� Chemical and Industrial Processes Lab: run in cooperation with University of Rome “Sapienza”
Dept. Chemical Engineering - synthesis and characterisation of nanoparticles
Company’s information
� Laboratories recognised by the Italian Ministry of Research (2006)
� Quality certification ISO 9001:2008 (2008)
� Amongst the founders of the European Joint Technology Platform on Hydrogen and Fuel
Cells (2007)
� More than 40 EC founded R&D projects carried out (2011)
� Coordinator of 13 FP6 projects, 5 FP7 projects
� Labor is the 3rd classified in Europe among SMEs for number of successful projects
Finding a way or making one
What is FEMAG-C ?
• FEMAG-C is the acronym for
Flexible Ecological Multipurpose Advanced Generator - Car
• It is a technology framework enabling the use of fuel cells as an on board electric generator for electric vehicles, allowing to match improved autonomy and reduced weight with the zero emission environmental advantage.
• It consists in a plug-in serial hybrid electric power train, featuring scalable and redundant architecture, able to convert and control electric power, according to preset strategies, conceived to reduce control requirements of PEMFC, and to improve their efficiency and lifetime.
• A low pressure metal hydride system performs safely hydrogen storage, with independent hydrogen sensors wired to automatically shutdown the system upon leak detection.
• FEMAG-C is also a platform available for the development of Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) plug-in serial hybrid off-highway vehicle
FEMAG-C cooperation
• FEMAG-C is the result of a public funded project, performed as a cooperative effort
between:
AGT Engineering
• System engineering
Università degli Studi di Roma “Tor Vergata”
• Energetic design and simulation
• Testing and validation
LABOR
• Mechanical design of the generator (and integration with vehicle)
• Design of DC/DC converter and control system
• Prototyping and testing
• Algorithms for the optimization of the power distribution
FEMAG-C simplified Architecture
#1 PEMFC#1 Intelligent
DC-DC ConverterElectric motorPower supply
LithiumPolymer
Battery Pack
#2 PEMFC#2 Intelligent
DC-DC Converter
Technical Characteristics / Hydrogen Section
Hydrogen Storage
• 6 Ovonics@work 940sl tank
• Metal hydride low pressure storage
• Excess heat from fuel cells is used for
hydrogen release
Hydrogen conversion
• 2 Ballard MK1020ACS PEM Fuel cell stacks
• 46 cells per stack
• 1,6 kW nominal power
• 45-60% LHV Efficiency
• 50Amps @ 32V with no significant
degradation
Technical Characteristics / Energy conversion
DC-DC Converter
• 24-50V input voltage
• 30-60V output voltage
• 50A maximum current output
• 88-94% electrical conversion efficiency
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50
0,5
0,55
0,6
0,65
0,7
0,75
0,8
0,85
0,9
0,95
1
DC-DC Converter efficiency
Fuel cell input current (A)
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 500
0,1
0,2
0,3
0,4
0,5
0,6
0,7
0,8
0,9
1
DC-DC Converter efficiency
Fuel cell Input current (A)
Technical Characteristics / Control system
Smart controller
• Intelligent loading of fuel cells with
preset ramps for longer lifecycle
• Independent control of fuel cells
• Battery charge and discharge
management
• Scalable architecture
13:4
0:53
13:4
0:54
13:4
0:56
13:4
0:57
13:4
0:59
13:4
1:1
13:4
1:3
13:4
1:4
13:4
1:6
13:4
1:7
13:4
1:9
13:4
1:11
13:4
1:13
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
DC1 Output DC2 Output Load
System evolution
Cu
rre
nt (
A)
Technical Characteristics / Energy storage
Battery Pack
• 3 EIG M4820 Lithium Polymer
batteries
• 48V 60Ah Total nominal capacity
• 3C recommended discharge rate
• 10C maximum discharge rate
• Recommended charge 2h
• Maximum charge 1h
Overall System Performance / Prototype
• 10 – 12 kWh capacity
(depending on fuel cell load strategy)
• 85 kg weight
• 40-55% LHV efficiency to electric motor
• 3 kW nominal power
• 10 kW peak power
• Instantaneous start-up
• Improved fuel cell lifetime
Power train performance comparison
Features FEMAG-C Lythium-Ion Battery
Pb-Gel Battery
Volume (l) 140 140 140
Weight (kg) 85 140 175
Usable energy (kWh) 12 14 5
Volumetric energy density (Wh/l) 86 100 36
Gravimetric energy density (Wh/kg) 141 100 29
Hydrogen storage performance comparison
Storage Section Metal Hydrides
350bar H2 tanks
Chemical Hydrides
Usable energy (assuming 50% cell efficiency) 8400 8400 8400
Weight (kg) 39 17,1 8,4
Gravimetric energy density (Wh/kg) 215 490 1000
FEMAG-C System
Total usable energy (Wh) 11400 11400 11400
Total weight 85 63,1 54,4
Gravimetric energy density (Wh/kg) 135 180 210
FEMAG-C conventional control strategy
• According to a conventional and non adaptive control strategy, fuel
cells are protected against load fluctuations by preset ramps
implemented by the DC/DC converters and the target of the ramp is
set according to the load demand
• Fuel cells are protected by overloading with two settings:
maximum current and minimum voltage
• Battery pack provides load current exceeding the maximum rated
current of fuel cells, and the temporary load peaks while fuel cells are
adjusting
This strategy is not optimizing the contributions from fuel cells and
battery. Since the efficiency of the fuel cells is lower at higher current
an improved algorithm has been developed to distribute load
current demand and implement an overall control strategy aimed at
efficiency maximisation
FEMAG-C optimization / assumptions
Efficiency of battery charge /dischargeEfficiency of the FC and DC-DC
converter aggregate
FEMAG-C optimization / how to balance?
• A greedy optimization
algorithm without any
correction would simply
discharge batteries, since
they are the most efficient
source
• To balance the contribution
between fuel cells and
batteries a further function
has been introduced
• This function awards FC
current when batteries are at
a lower voltage, and on the
contrary, batteries current at
higher voltage
FEMAG-C optimization / battery map
Bat
tery
pow
er
FEMAG-C optimization / fuel cell map
Fue
l cel
l pow
er
FEMAG-C optimization / conclusions
• The algorithm results still
need to be validated on the
vehicle.
• Preliminary simulation with
available data and
extrapolation of controller
behaviour shows a
considerable efficiency
increase (5-8%)
• Control route simulation has
to be implemented and tested
to calculate differences over
ECE cycles
• Hydrogen storage is still a critical point for automotive acceptability
350/700 bar compressed storage offer higher energy density and will be
considered for future projects.
• Fuel cells are still undergoing heavy technological development and their mass
market will not start soon
• FEMAG-C Electronics is currently being upgraded to a more powerful and
expandable platform
• Labor is opened to partner with industrial players interested to the exploitation
of FEMAG-C concepts, and actively looking for new applications and early
markets for hydrogen technology
• Results of the FEMAG-C project are currently being used to develop a plug-in
serial hybrid off-highway vehicle based on an LPG powered Internal Combustion
Engine (ICE)
FEMAG-C open issues
Thank you!
Contacts:
• Domenico Serpella: [email protected]
• Alfredo Picano: [email protected]
• Labor s.r.l., Via Giacomo Peroni 386, 00131 Roma, Italy - www.labor-eu.net
