DOE DE-FOA-0002903, DOE Topic C56-18b, "Compact and Low-Cost Thermal Management for Heavy-Duty Vehicle Fuel Cells"

Due to lower operating temperature and greater heat removal requirements, Proton Exchanger Membrane Fuel Cell powered heavy-duty vehicles will require larger radiators compared to diesel- equipped vehicles. These radiators will have much larger frontal areas that will reduce the aerodynamic efficiency of trucks. In addition, the larger heat removal requirements and low speed of construction equipment operation will require larger air fans and fan power than diesel engine powered equipment. New approaches to thermal management are needed to dissipate heat from clean hydrogen fueled heavy-duty vehicles. The increased heat dissipation need will be addressed by an innovative compact heat exchanger design that optimizes truck aerodynamics and reduces volume, weight and material cost by 41.8 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 51.5 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. The proposed innovative thermal management system will be designed and analyzed for selected on-road truck and off-road construction equipment applications, using available analysis and design tools. In support of these designs an available global thermal dynamic model will be utilized to ensure that fuel cell stack temperature remains in a range where both performance and longevity is maximized over vehicle driving cycles. The design will then be converted into a small-scale test article design, which will be fabricated and tested. Using test and analysis results, the performance, integrity and cost will be determined, and a conclusion reached on the technical and economic feasibility of the thermal management system. 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 could benefit from implementing the more, compact, efficient and lower-cost proposed technology. This represents a 504 million dollars/year market, where costs could be reduced by approximately 250 million dollars/year, by implementing the proposed technology. In addition, there are millions of other air conditioning, heat pump and refrigeration applications that could benefit from heat exchangers implementing the proposed technology. These additional implementations could save consumers and industry over 100 million dollars/year, in addition to reducing energy use by over 50 percent.