DOE Ph I DE-SC0023831, DOE FOA DE-FOA-0003279, DOE Topic C56-18b, "Compact and Low-Cost Thermal Management for Heavy-Duty Vehicle Fuel Cells"

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell powered heavy duty vehicles require larger radiators, compared to diesel equipped vehicles. These radiators have larger frontal areas that reduce the aerodynamic efficiency of trucks, or require increased radiator depth, increasing fan power and parasitic power losses. These challenges also impact low speed construction equipment that require larger air fans and fan power, than diesel engine powered equipment. New approaches to thermal management are needed, to dissipate heat from these vehicles. The increased heat dissipation need is addressed by an innovative compact heat exchanger design that optimizes air side heat transfer to reduce volume, weight and material cost by fifty percent, for both on road and off road vehicles. This innovative heat exchanger is combined with an efficient air fan to reduce fan power by thirty five percent. The approach is flexible and can be adapted to different heat dissipation capacities, and can be utilized in many other heat dissipation applications, including light trucks, automobiles, heating and cooling of residential and commercial buildings, chemical, food and other commercial and industrial processes. Under the Phase I effort, analyses and test results were used to validate the feasibility of the advanced thermal management system, and the advanced heat exchanger design, for the specified vehicle application. The proposed innovative thermal management system will be validated for selected on road truck and off road construction equipment applications, using available modeling tools. The design will be converted into a full scale prototype thermal management system, which will be fabricated and tested in a truck simulator. Using test and analyses results, the performance, integrity and cost, and technical and economic benefits of the thermal management system will be defined. There are more than 220,000 heavy duty Class 8 trucks, and 200,000 heavy duty construction equipment sold, per year, in the United States, which will benefit from implementing the proposed technology. This represents a large market, where implementation of the innovative thermal management system would save 234 million dollars per year, and reduce greenhouse gases by 18.1 million tons per year. Applying the technology to residential and commercial air conditioners, and heat pumps, the savings increase to 1.48 billion dollars per year, and greenhouse gases are reduced by 8.9 million tons per year.