Technical viability study of fuel cell as an alternative to diesel in Diesel Electric Multiple Units (DEMUs) for suburban rail transportation

In this paper technical viability of Fuel Cell as an alternative fuel to diesel used in Diesel Electric Multiple Units (DEMUS) for suburban/short distance passenger transportation in India is presented. Fuel Cell is obvious pollution free, renewable and quite energy source. A system has been worked out using Fuel Cell, Lithium Ion Batteries and supper capacitor to meet transient and base energy requirement of transport drive. It overcome limitation of Fuel Cell System (FCS) to deliver transient current and power requirement. Energy recovery by employing regenerative braking and necessity of electrical energy storage systems is also deliberated to make operation efficient. Electric drives, Fuel Cells, topologies of converter are also briefly discussed. Performance of FCS based DEMU has been simulated over standard route, which shows around 35% energy can be recovered during regenerative braking.