Modelling and analysis of a solid polymer fuel cell system for transportation applications

This paper presents the development and application of a performance model for a solid polymer fuel cell power system for transportation applications. The model simulates the operation of all the components in the system-incl uding the fuel cell stack, and the air compression, hydrogen supply, and co oling subsystems. Two duty cycles are used to examine the performance of th e baseline system, as well as to evaluate the benefits obtained by improvin g individual system components. The results indicate that the largest impro vements in system performance would be obtained by (a) a reduction of the c ooling loads, (b) improving the efficiency of the inlet air compressor, and (c) recovery of the thermomechanical energy in the stored compressed hydro gen. (C) 2001 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by E lsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.