Determination of the optimal battery capacity of a PEM fuel cell vehicle taking into account recuperation and supercapacitors

Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell vehicles require an electrical intermediate storage system to compensate for dynamic load requirements. That storage system uses a battery and has the task to increase tolerance to dynamic operation. In addition, energy can be recuperated and stored in supercapacitors to increase the fuel cell vehicle’s efficiency. To determine the optimal battery capacity according to the recuperation potential and possible use of a supercapacitor, a reference vehicle with PEM fuel cell was transferred to the simulation environment Matlab/Simulink. The model is based on a cell model describing the electrochemical and physical interactions within the cell. It has been implemented in a complete vehicle model for the representation of a fuel cell vehicle. Various legal driving cycles, such as the WLTP (“Worldwide harmonized Light Vehicles Test Procedure”), were used for the calculations. A further step sets the optimal battery capacity depending on the dynamic of the fuel cell system. With this simulation model, dynamic requirements—for the fuel cell and the associated system components—can be determined in the future, scalable for each vehicle depending on the battery capacity and recuperation potential.