Infinity-Horizon Cost-Based Controller for Reducing Fuel Cell Degradation and Hydrogen Consumption in Fuel Cell Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Abstract

Fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles (FCHEVs) are being developed as eco-friendly vehicles, but one of the technical challenges is the short lifespan of the fuel cell system. Frequent starting and load changes of the fuel cell system are key factors that degrade the lifespan. To address this issue, we propose an infinity-horizon cost-based power management controller that reduces fuel cell degradation while minimizing battery degradation and hydrogen consumption. The proposed controller considers the expected cost incurred over an infinite horizon, which reduces unnecessary start/stop cycles of the fuel cell and optimizes the battery and fuel cell operation. We present three different controllers with infinity-horizon expected costs, which were and validated through multiple simulations. Our results demonstrate that the proposed controller is effective in minimizing fuel cell degradation and improving overall system efficiency in FCHEVs. The key contribution of this paper is that our proposed controller can minimize the fuel cell degradation and hydrogen consumption in both short-and long-term horizon by leveraging the concept of the infinity-horizon expected cost to short time horizon controllers.