Towards Sustainable Mobility: Comparative Study of Energy Management Strategies in Fuel-Cell Hybrid Electric Vehicles

Abstract

The global shift towards fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles (FHEVs) is motivated by rising fuel costs and environmental concerns related to emissions. This study evaluates two energy management strategies in a hybrid electric vehicle equipped with a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) as the primary power source and a lithium-ion battery as a secondary source. A traditional proportional-integral (PI) strategy and an intelligent fuzzy logic-based control (FLC) strategy are compared to optimize energy flow and minimize fuel consumption. Both algorithms studied generate the reference power of the PEM fuel cell for each state of charge level of the Li-ion battery and the required power of the vehicle. Simulation results, using the NYCC drive cycle, demonstrate that the fuzzy logic-based control strategy mitigates voltage fluctuations, reduces battery discharging, and hydrogen consumption, thereby improving transient response.