Testing of an automotive fuel cell system

This paper is to present a test platform for automotive fuel cell systems and report some test results on this platform. The test platform was developed based on a test bed of internal combustion engine with a dynamometer, the dynamometer acted as both a load and a measurement instrument. A fuel cell engine, a DC/DC converter and an induction traction drive motor with a DC/AC inverter were integrated to a system and were tested in the platform. Test results of one fuel cell system showed that the efficiency was 41% (LHV) while 50 kW of electrical power is produced in the engine; the cell current density was 400 mA/cm(2) when 0.65 V of average cell voltage is obtained in the stacks; the maximum mechanical power of the fuel cell system was 41 kW, and the best specific fuel consumption was 102 g/kWh. This test platform is feasible for evaluating all components of fuel cell systems, such as stacks, parasitic powers, engines, DC/DC converters and traction drive motors; and in this platform it is convenient to uncover problems of electromagnetism compatibility in the fuel cell systems before being mounted into vehicles. (C) 2004 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.