In the recent years, the use of conventional passenger vehicles has been
increasingly discouraged, from European-level policies to local municipal
regulations, due to the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and urban
pollution. In response to these challenges, the PRIN2020 project HySUM
(Hybrid SUstainable Mobility platform) explores innovative
hybrid powertrain solutions for light and heavy quadricycles to achieve
near-zero pollutant emissions, focusing on internal combustion engine hybrid
electric vehicles and fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles. Taking all these
aspects into consideration, this article proposes an integrated solution for
cooling/HVAC circuits, to improve energy efficiency and occupants’ comfort,
while focusing on proper battery operation, with a recuperator heat exchanger
used to recover the available heat at the powertrain output, in order to reduce
the HVAC heater energy consumption. The complexity of the circuit requires a
specific control logic to be implemented to simultaneously ensure cabin comfort,
effective thermal management of the battery, and minimize energy consumption.
The study is applied to the HySUM fuel cell/battery hybrid L-class electric
vehicle. A thermal and electrical model for predicting the heat generation and
the state of charge of the battery under dynamic load profiles is employed to
better understand the potential of the thermal integration of the battery
cooling with the HVAC system. The simulation results are encouraging and
demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed thermal load management.
Significant energy savings are achieved through the use of the recuperator
during driving, while battery thermal management is accomplished without the
need for a dedicated circuit, by utilizing conditioned air from the HVAC/cabin
system. Unlike traditional lightweight electrified vehicles, which often lack
efficient HVAC systems, this solution enhances energy efficiency and guarantees
reliable component operation in varying environmental conditions.
