FCTESTNET: Harmonized Testing Procedures for Fuel Cells in Transportation Applications

1. Fuel Cell TEsting & STandardisation NETwork FCTESTNET Georgios Tsotridis - Andreas Podias EC-DG JRC - Institute for Energy EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

2. Contents: • Network Objectives & Structure • Project Summary of WP 1 Transport Applications • Traffic Lights analysis • Pre normative research needs EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

3. Project Summary / 1NETWORK OBJECTIVES Compile already existing and further develop harmonised testing procedures and testing methodologies applicable to: • stationary power sources; • portable fuel cells; • transport applications Focusing on: • single fuel cells • fuel cell stacks • fuel cell systems EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

4. WP 0 COORDINATION WP 8 EXTERNAL RELATIONS US, CANADA JAPAN STAND.BODIES IEA DG-RTD DG-TREN (Advisory role) FCTESTNET STRUCTURE STEERING COMMITEE WP 1 APPLICATIONS TRANSPORT WP 2 APPLICATIONS STATIONARY WP 3 APPLICATIONS PORTABLE Applications Area WP 4 BALANCE OF PLANTS Technologies Area WP 5 PEMFC WP 6 MCFC WP 7 SOFC EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

5. Project Summary / 2 • WP 1 of FCTESTNET focuses : • on test procedures for the evaluation of fuel cell systems for the following transport application areas: • Road vehicles • Rail transport • Marine applications • Aviation EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

6. Project Summary / 3 • The work performed in WP 1 has covered the following activities (1/2): • Inventory of existing formal & ad-hoc test procedures; • Analysis of operational conditions and requirements for fuel cell systems; • Identification of a list of tests that are relevant for characterising fuel cell systems; EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

7. Project Summary / 4 • The work performed in WP 1 has covered the following activities (2/2): • Development of a number of test procedures where there is a high need of harmonization • Identification of knowledge gaps and needs for future work EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

8. Project Summary / 5 • More specifically, WP 1 has developed: • a list of all tests relevant for road vehicle applications; • a set of 9 Test Modules see next slides • These tests might serve as input to standardisation bodies; EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

9. FCTESTNET - Work Package 1:Transport applications “Traffic light” analysis / 1 EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

10. FCTESTNET - Work Package 1:Transport applications “Traffic light” analysis / 1 EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

11. FCTESTNET - Work Package 1:Transport applications “Traffic light” analysis / 2 EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

12. FCTESTNET - Work Package 1:Transport applications “Traffic light” analysis / 3 EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

13. FCTESTNET - Work Package 1:Transport applications “Traffic light” analysis / 4 EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

14. NOx emissions of fuel cell system • NOx emissions are currently regulated in marine applications in various parts of the world. Due to these requirements, a fuel cell system is required also to conform to the existing limits. • While in the automotive world hydrogen and low temperature fuel cells are being considered, the economics of the marine industry is likely to drive to the use of diesel fuels, also with fuel cell systems. This requires onboard fuel reforming, which may lead to NOx emissions. EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

15. Ambient condition variation tests – cold start test • Cold start might be a problem with fuel cells in automotive applications and for startup of emergency generators in marine applications. • Unlike in stationary applications, significant warm-up times are not acceptable to the customer. In addition, systems are not kept under controlled conditions, which may lead to system freezing and subsequent damage. • It is therefore important to test the cold start performance to allow customer acceptance of fuel cell systems. EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

16. EMC Test • With high current systems involved in propulsion systems, the radiated electromagnetic radiation could be significant. • In addition, the system needs to be immune to radiation from the environment to ensure system and user safety. • EMC performance of fuel cell systems should be measured on a prescribed driving cycle EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

17. Fuel consumption of fuel cell system on homologation cycle (H2 fuel) • Driving range, on gaseous fuels is heavily dependent on the real efficiency of the system. • All existing procedures for measuring fuel consumption of road vehicles make use of the carbon-balance method to determine the fuel consumption. This method is not applicable to a fuel cell system running on hydrogen fuel. Various solutions to these problems are being proposed EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

18. APU Voltage Regulation • The goal of an APU is to deliver the required electrical power while maintaining a sufficient level of voltage regulation. Voltage regulation is critical for the proper functioning of the attached electrical loads. • In this test module, a time varying pulsed load is applied to the APU, simulating the functioning of an automotive heating system. The test object considered is a hybrid APU, i.e. fuel cell system and energy storage together. EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

19. Power Quality – Transient Response • Transient response of the fuel cell power generator depends on the power system architecture considering hybridisation by a buffer energy storage element (battery, supercapacitors…) or not. • Hybridisation, depending on the system concept, could significantly reduce the power level (kW) delivered by the fuel cell generator under the working conditions and get a downsizing effect for the fuel cell generator. • This test module simulates the transient load following capability of the fuel cell power generator, by: applying a transient load profile request and measuring the response of the actual delivered load. EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

20. Dielectric Strength (high voltage) • At some point during the lifetime of a power generator, the generator will be subjected to high voltage peaks. • For approval, the power generator has to be able to withstand temporary high voltages without destruction. EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

21. Crash Safety of a Fuel Cell System • In the event of an accident, safety is critical for transport applications. A critical aspect of this is the safe containment of systems. • This test method imposes a shock impulse on the fuel cell system (or alternatively a sustained equivalent load) to simulate the loading on the system that occurs during an accident. The system is deemed acceptable if the mountings retain the system in place. EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

22. Overload and short circuit • In the event of an overload or short circuit condition, the fuel cell system should be capable of supplying this overload without damage to the system. This ensures system functionality in the event of a fault elsewhere in the electrical system. • This test method presents tests for marine and aviation applications. EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

23. Identified missing test modules / 1 • Important tests to be harmonised: • Noise emissions • Power performance capability • Vibration testing • Durability (thermo cycling; power throughput; power degradation) • Ambient condition variation tests (temperature; humidity; pressure) • These test modules were found to be important for all application areas (rail, marine, aviation, automotive), and could be harmonised among the various application areas to a large extent. • Test methodologies could be largely the same for the different transport applications, while static test conditions and dynamic variations of input parameters (e.g. power cycles) could be made application specific. EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

24. General considerations on availability of tests and needs for harmonisation - Potential pre-normative research needs / 1 • Only a few standards exist which are specific for fuel cell vehicles, fuel cell propulsion systems or fuel cell APUs • APU-applications of fuel cells may be very important. At present little information is available on load profiles for various APU-applications; • Application-oriented test procedures to be applied at the level of fuel cell systems are at present not available EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

25. General considerations on availability of tests and needs for harmonisation - Potential pre-normative research needs / 2 • Evaluation test procedures at the fuel cell system level could be developed as a “best practice”, but do not necessarily have to be formally standardised. Harmonisation at the European level, however, does seem useful, not only from an industry perspective, but also e.g. to enable evaluation and benchmarking of systems developed in variousEU-funded projects; • Type approval test procedures are within the domain of codes and standards. • For LD road vehicles these will have to be defined at the vehicle level • For HD road vehicles and most other transport applications procedures need to be defined at the “engine” level, i.e. at the level of fuel cell systems or fuel cell-driven power trains EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

26. General considerations on availability of tests and needs for harmonisation - Potential pre-normative research needs / 3 • The test cycles used for automotive type approval do not represent real-world driving. Different technologies may compare differently on the type approval test cycle compared to real-world test cycles. For fuel cell applications more insight is necessary on the impact of real-world use on efficiency and emissions; • Type approval procedures for determining engine power can not be translated directly to fuel cells. EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

27. Further pre-normative activities • An important next step is verification of the presented test modules • As usual with testing, many problems in testing procedures could only be identified during the actual execution of the tests. During this process, extra information could also become available which could help as to further specify the requirements and processes involved, bringing the modules to a “best practices” level. • the FCTESTNET test modules could assist the standardisatiuon procedures Disseminating them at the standardisation bodies, could facilitate this process. EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

28. Other suggested RCS items • In addition to all above mentioned items, other suggested RCS items may be: • Modelling & validation of testing procedures (selection of test benchmarks to be compared against modelling) e.g.Hydrogen (accident scenarios), Fuel cell (Performance, of single cells, short stacks and systems) EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005

29. JRC-Institute for Energy Thank you for your attention! georgios.tsotridis@jrc.nl www.jrc.nl/fctestnet EU-HarmonHy Workshop, Bruxelles, 26 September 2005