A liquid fuelled, fuel cell auxiliary power unit (APU) can provide efficient, quiet and low pollution power for a variety of applications including commercial and military vehicles.
Truck idling regulation, customer comfort or military “stealth” operation by using electrical power, require a device disconnected from the main diesel engine. The power can be utilized for air conditioning as well as other auxiliary systems found on board commercial trucks for driver comfort. In a military vehicle, this regulated power could be supplied to telecommunication and other computer equipment required for military operations.
A system designed to be an add-on or retrofit solution using alternative fuel can have the potential to meet these requirements on the hundreds of thousands of existing vehicles currently in service or as optional equipment on a newly procured vehicle.
This paper highlights the test bench main results, simulation analysis and the vehicle installation analysis, which were undertaken as part of a cooperative research and development program between Ballard Power Systems, Freightliner, the University of Alabama and the US Army.