Fuel Cell Vehicle Efficiency Optimization by Advanced Fuel Cell Design and Drive Train Simulation

For air flow and energy consumption optimization, a new fuel cell architecture has recently been developed.^[1] Calculations and experimental validations of the air flow in these cell types showed very low flow resistance leading to small pressure drops in the cells.

In order to investigate the influences of different fuel cell system designs and architectures, a model of a complete fuel cell vehicle was set up.

The simulation results showed about 2% reduction in fuel consumption in the NEDC cycle and 7% in a freeway cycle for the new cell architecture. In the city and the city-highway cycle the improvements were around 1%. For a full exploitation of the whole potential of the concept, further improvements in energy consumption and cost structure can be expected.