Slide no. 1

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Fuel Cell TEsting STandardisation
NETwork FCTESTNET Georgios Tsotridis - Andreas
Podias EC-DG JRC - Institute for Energy
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Contents

• Network Objectives Structure
• Project Summary of WP 1 Transport Applications
• Traffic Lights analysis
• Pre normative research needs

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Project Summary / 1 NETWORK 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

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FCTESTNET STRUCTURE
WP 8 EXTERNAL RELATIONS US, CANADA JAPAN STAND.BO
DIES IEA
WP 0 COORDINATION
DG-RTD DG-TREN (Advisory role)
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
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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

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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

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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

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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

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Traffic light analysis / 1
FCTESTNET - Work Package 1 Transport applications
Major Items Note
Environmental Test Programme Harmonisation areas
Functional Test Programme automotive, marine, aviation
Durability Test Programme automotive, marine, aviation
Safety Test Programme automotive, marine, rail, aviation
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Traffic light analysis / 1
FCTESTNET - Work Package 1 Transport applications
Major Items Traffic light Note
Environmental Test Programme Harmonisation areas
NOx emissions marine, aviation
Variation of ambient conditions cold start automotive, marine, aviation
EMC tests automotive, marine, rail, aviation
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Traffic light analysis / 2
FCTESTNET - Work Package 1 Transport applications
Major Items Traffic light Note
Functional Test Programme Harmonisation areas
Fuel consumption fuel cell system on homologation cycle (H2 fuel) automotive
APU Voltage Regulation automotive, marine, rail, aviation
Power quality Transient response automotive, marine, rail, aviation
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Traffic light analysis / 3
FCTESTNET - Work Package 1 Transport applications
Major Items Traffic light Note
Durability Test Programme Harmonisation areas
Dielectric strength marine, rail, aviation
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Traffic light analysis / 4
FCTESTNET - Work Package 1 Transport applications
Major Items Traffic light Note
Safety Test Programme Harmonisation areas
Crash safety automotive, rail, aviation
Overload and short circuit automotive, marine, rail, aviation
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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.

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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 various EU-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

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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.

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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.

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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)

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JRC-Institute for Energy
Thank you for your attention!
georgios.tsotridis_at_jrc.nl www.jrc.nl/fctestnet