Two testing campaigns were performed in Turin by CRF (the Fiat
Research Center), and in Rome by ENEA (the Italian National Agency
for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment) and the
University "ROMA TRE". The work demonstrates the feature
of a FC emulator to characterize fuel-cell-propelled drivetrains
without employing an expensive PEM fuel cell and it points out how
the vehicle fuel consumption, on a specific mission, depends on two
fundamental parameters, the accordance of the FC nominal power with
the requested power of the mission and the battery
State-of-Charge.
In the ENEA Research Center "Casaccia", near Rome, the
behaviors of PEM Fuel Cells of different sizes (7, 15, 22 kW) were
simulated by replacing them with a controlled AC/DC converter, this
fuel cell emulator powering a full-scale hybrid drive train.
A real hybrid 60-kW FC powertrain was tested at the same time in
Turin and the obtained results were used to build the control
function for the FC emulator and to validate the results from the
powertrain being tested in Rome.
This paper shows the experimental test campaign in Rome, and it
focuses the sharing of the power fluxes among fuel cell, battery
and motor, for different FC power settings and battery energy
levels (SOC).