Development of Fuel Cell Hybrid Electric Vehicle Fueled by Methanol

Hyundai has developed a Santa Fe fuel cell vehicle (FCV) in which methanol fuel processor is installed and integrated with PEM fuel cell system. Pure hydrogen is produced from the mixture of methanol and water by steam reforming followed by metal membrane purification and is then fed to fuel cell system to generate electrical energy. This system has the advantage of simplifying the integration of fuel cell subsystem and fuel processor subsystem. The operation of brassboard system has been carried out for performance evaluation and the development of fuel cell controller. And then the methanol reforming fuel cell system has been incorporated into electric drive train in the vehicle.

AC induction motor is powered by the hybrid system using fuel cell and a nickel metal hydride battery as energy sources to improve the system efficiency and the acceleration response of the vehicle. The traction motor is connected with the battery and fuel cell that are connected with each other via DC/DC Booster in parallel. This paper summarizes the current status on development of various system components, their integration and vehicle.