An energy management strategy based on dynamic programming for fuel cell hybrid trucks in ports

The deterioration of environment and the proposal of carbon neutrality are causing the transformation of port freight transportation. Fuel cell hybrid trucks (FCHTs) may be a promising solution for port logistic with the characteristics of low speed, heavy duty and frequent start-stops. How to achieve efficient energy management for FCHTs in ports is a key issue, which is still in the initial stage. The objective of this study is to investigate the effects of dynamic programming (DP) strategy on energy management of FCHTs. With the intention of calculating power demands, the FCHT structure and the models of each component are established. In the DP method, the state of charge (SOC) of the battery, the power supplied by the battery, and hydrogen fuel consumption are regarded as the state variable, the decision variable, and the objective function, respectively. The simulation results under two different typical working conditions in ports show that the proposed DP outperforms existing genetic algorithm (GA) and rule-based strategy for reducing hydrogen fuel consumption by over 10%. Moreover, a set of instances among several FCHTs with different parameters and conditions suggest different influences of key feature parameters on hydrogen fuel consumption and SOC. Nearly 50% cost reduction of the FCHT in the "quay crane-yard " (QCY) cycle compared with diesel trucks at the current price indicates wide application prospect of FCHTs. At last, the results under different conditions reconfirm that DP is an excellent strategy to tackle energy management of FCHTs in ports with frequent start-stops and heavy-load scenarios.