Comparative Analysis of Highly Efficient Alkaline Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles

A comparative analysis of two different fuel cell electric vehicle (FCEV) is presented in this paper. One of the designs makes use of an alkaline fuel cell (AFC), while the other makes use of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). The focus is to find superior efficiency of the AFC-powered FCEV over its PEMFC counterpart. The AFC system provides greater electrical efficiency, up to 70 % under suitable conditions, compared to around 50 % for the PEMFCs. Its capacity to use catalysts made of non-noble metals and its reduced activation overpotential at the cathode are the reasons behind this. Additionally, the AFCs benefit from faster electrode reactions and reduced costs due to the use of cheaper materials. The AFC powered FCEV is named as FCEV-A, and that for PEMFC is FCEV-P. In designing the FCEV, a dc/dc boost converter is used to make the fuel cell output voltage higher because its output voltage is not enough for the permanent magnet synchronous motor. An inverter assists to generate ac voltage for the motor. The setup is performed in MATLAB/Simulink environment. A comparison of the FCEV-A and FCEV-P outputs reveals that the former exhibits better performance.