Energy management system in fuel cell electric vehicle using fuzzy logic controller

Abstract

In response to the environmental degradation and the climate change impact, the global concerns are now rising towards the alternative source of fuel and carbon emission issues. In the transportation sector, Electric and hybrid vehicles are having the encouraged interest globally, since they are viewed as the most promising alternatives for pollution abatement and carbon emission reduction. This will open the window for the alternative to the reduction of conventional fossil-based fuel usage. Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) Electric Vehicles (FCEV) are among the options of the kind due to better environment and performance prospects offered compared to the internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEV). However, the Fuel Cells (FC) need to be hybridized with energy storage source to improve the dynamics and power density of the FC systems. Using two sources of power require an intelligent energy management strategy since the FC health and battery state-of-charge (SOC) shall be maintained at optimum level. The energy management control of FCEV is currently an increasing research area in the EV technology development. The goal of this work is to propose an intelligent energy management strategy in controlling the FC’s power output, thus maintain the optimum SOC level in a FCEV. A Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) is developed in this work. FLC is appropriate for power distribution in FCEV, as it is independent against the technical aspect of FCEV system. A FCEV model is developed, and simulation is implemented in the MATLAB/Simulink environment. A Proportional-Integral (PI) controller technique is also developed, as a comparison to the proposed FLC validity and performance. By adopting Fuzzy Logic Controller, the optimum performance of FCEV is obtained. Consequently, the FC durability and battery lifetime can be enhanced.