Optimal power management of an experimental fuel cell/supercapacitor-powered hybrid vehicle

This paper deals with power flow management within a hybrid fuel cell-powered vehicle during real-time operation. The aim is the real-time control of the power distribution between the fuel cell and its associated energy storage to optimize the global hydrogen consumption while maintaining drivability. An original concept to convert the electrical power flow into equivalent hydrogen cost is proposed. On that basis, the previously developed control strategy (the equivalent consumption minimization strategy) is used to determine the real-time optimal power distribution by simple minimization of a univariate form. The approach presented has been applied to and implemented on a real fuel cell-supercapacitor-powered vehicle. Experimental and simulation results are presented, demonstrating that this approach provides an improvement of fuel efficiency along with robustness and ease of implementation.