Optimal thermal management on reutilising wasted heat from fuel cell system for HVAC of the hydrogen-powered train

In this paper, a study is conducted to integrate fuel cell thermal management system with the Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) of railway passenger coach to reuse the wasted heat for train’s heating. Firstly, a hybrid train operating simulator with dynamic programming (DP) is developed to make the efficient power distribution for fuel cell system (FCS) and battery pack (BP). Then, on-train heat generation is estimated with the predicted fuel cell output power trajectory. Moreover, a thermodynamic model for HydroFLEX coach is developed to predict its heating requirement under various ambient temperatures. Finally, an on-train integrated thermal management is developed to evaluate the feasibility of this design. The potential heat requirement from coach and wasted heat from fuel cell system are compared and investigated. The results show that quantities of electrical power can be saved if the wasted heat reutilisation is applied to the HVAC of train coaches, improving the overall energy efficiency of the hydrogen-powered fuel cell train.