Introduction to Hydrogen Fuel Cell Vehicles
Currently, the most mature new energy vehicles are hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) and battery electric vehicles (BEVs). In comparison, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles (FCEVs) hold significant development potential.
FCEVs use electricity to power an electric motor. Unlike other electric vehicles, FCEVs generate electricity from a hydrogen fuel cell, rather than solely from batteries. During vehicle design, manufacturers define the vehicle's power by the size of the electric motor, which draws power from an appropriately sized fuel cell and battery pack. While automakers can design plug-in FCEVs to recharge the battery, most FCEVs today use batteries to recover braking energy, providing additional power during short acceleration events, and smooth the fuel cell's power during periods of low power demand by idling or shutting down the fuel cell. FCEVs use pure hydrogen stored in the vehicle's fuel tank as fuel. Similar to traditional internal combustion vehicles, they can be refueled in less than four minutes and have a range of over 500 km. FCEVs produce no harmful exhaust emissions, only water vapor and hot air.
(1) Auxiliary battery: In electric vehicles, the low-voltage auxiliary battery provides power to start the vehicle before the drive battery is engaged; it also provides power for vehicle accessories.
(2) Battery pack: This high-voltage battery stores energy generated by regenerative braking and provides supplemental power to the electric drive motor.
(3) Direct current/direct current (DC/DC) converter: This device converts the high-voltage DC power from the power battery pack into the low-voltage DC power required to run vehicle accessories and charge the auxiliary battery.
(4) Electric drive motor: This motor uses electricity from the fuel cell and the power battery pack to drive the wheels. Some vehicles use an integrated motor-generator that performs both drive and regeneration functions.
(5) Fuel cell stack: A component that uses hydrogen and oxygen to generate electricity.
(6) Fuel filler: A nozzle on the fuel filler connects to a receptacle on the vehicle through the filler port to refuel the vehicle.
(7) Fuel tank (hydrogen): This stores hydrogen on board the vehicle.
(8) FCEV power electronics controller: This device manages the electrical energy delivered by the fuel cell and power battery, controlling the speed of the drive motor and the torque it produces.
(9) Thermal management system (cooling): This system maintains the appropriate operating temperature range for the fuel cell, motor, power electronics, and other components.
(10) Transmission: The transmission transmits the mechanical power of the electric drive motor to the wheels.
