Economic impact of the energy management applied on fuel cell based vehicles with undersized and oversized secondary energy sources

Nowadays fuel cell based vehicles are considered as an environmentally friendly alternative to fossil fuel propelled vehicles. However, despite the advantages associated to fuel cells, there are a number of drawbacks that must be overcome through the design of the control strategy and the powertrain design. The use of power management strategies is intended to reduce the fuel consumption while fulfilling the load energy demand. The objective of the present paper is the quantification of both the hydrogen and electricity savings and their economic impact along an 8h working day, when power management is applied and when it is not. The considered powertrain is implemented by means of a fuel cell as main energy source and a battery as secondary energy source. Two different battery sizes are considered in the analysis, with the aim of analyze the impact of the energy management techniques. The simulation results obtained when power management is applied or not, considering two different battery sizes, are compared in terms of fuel consumption, economic impact, required battery recharge and final battery state of charge.