NHA 2010, Long Beach, California, USA E. PINTON May 4th 2010

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TECHNICAL AND ECONOMICAL STUDY ABOUT THE INTEREST IN USING

PEMFC SYSTEMS TO FEED STAND ALONE RAILWAY EQUIPMENTS

Eric PINTON(1), Laurent ANTONI (1), Marc ANTONI (2)

(1)CEA (2)SNCF

NHA 2010

May 4th, 2010 Long Beach, California, USA

NHA 2010, Long Beach, California, USA E. PINTON May 4th 2010

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INTRODUCTION

Fuel Cell technology is believed by the French National railway company “SNCF” as a potential technology to feed stand alone railway equipments of fixed facilities

In order to enhance this interest, a technical and economical study was carried out. The investigation compares 3 types of energetic systems dedicated to stand alone applications: Fuel cells, Photovoltaic, battery.

NHA 2010, Long Beach, California, USA E. PINTON May 4th 2010

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INPUTS and SPECIFICATION

Main railway equipment inputs :– Equipments with continuous energy consumption : 3 to 50 W

(250 W maxi with cumulated equipments)– Equipments with discontinuous energy consumption (during

train crossing): o 5 to 1000 W (1850 W maxi with cumulated equipments)

o 5 to 90 sec

o 10 times per day

– Voltage : principally 24 V DC, 230 V AC

Main technical specification :– Assure the energy continuity of railway equipments with no

maintenance during 18 months

→ Is there a FC system able to respond to this requirement ?

NHA 2010, Long Beach, California, USA E. PINTON May 4th 2010

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FLUIDIC ACHITECTURE OF AIR PEMFC

Standard fluidic architecture of an air PEMFC :– Complex, many components → not reliable:

failure rate ≈ 3 per year for a continuous working (Gerbec et al, int. JHE, 2008).

→ Not in accordance with specifications. → System simplification is required.

Simplified fluidic architecture of an air PEMFC :– Possible with PEMFC ≈ kW.– Cooling line : controlled air convection.– Air line : Dry air, P ≈ Patm – H2 line : dead end.→ failure rate of the FC system ↓ but life time of

MEAs ↓ too (Ballard : 4000 h versus 8000 h).

→ Not in accordance with specifications.→ Appropriate electrical architecture is required.

NHA 2010, Long Beach, California, USA E. PINTON May 4th 2010

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ELECTRICAL ACHITECTURE

Solution : add a battery between the FC and the railway equipments.

→ Battery is recharged periodically by FC → FC operating time ↓.

→ Energy continuity with equipments is ensured by the battery.

Battery Ubat

FC UFC

DC/DC Converter1 UFC-Ubat

Motor(s) 230 V AC

UEquipt(s) DC

UEquit2(s) DC

(= Ubat)

DC/DC Converter3(s) Ubat-Uequipt(s)

= DC/DC Converter2 Ubat-Ucon

DC/AC converter

˜ ˜ ˜

NHA 2010, Long Beach, California, USA E. PINTON May 4th 2010

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HYPOTHESIS AND MODEL FOR

HYBRID FC SYSTEM SIZING

Battery sizing:– Lead acid technology is considered.– Battery capacity is calculated for a 1 day battery life at the

severest conditions: IMax et -20°C and for a maximal DOD of 50%.

– Maximal current confirmation : o Imax Discharge < 1 C o Imax Recharge < 0,1 C and readjustment of the capacity to respect the criteria.

– Self discharge is taken into account. FC sizing:

– Battery is recharged each day during 10 h.– FC efficiency is supposed to be constant at rated conditions.

H2 storage sizing:– H2 amount must supply the FC and recharge the battery during

18 months

NHA 2010, Long Beach, California, USA E. PINTON May 4th 2010

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HYPOTHESIS AND MODEL FOR

PV SYSTEM SIZING

Battery sizing:– Identical to FC system except for the battery capacity which is

assessed to the maximal day number without sun.

PV sizing:– The model calculates the energy amount available in the battery

as a function of time (hourly scale), from hourly climatic data and from PV modules, converter and battery features. Number of modules required is determined such as no failure of the energy supplying occurs during 18 months.

Strategy of the energy

management

0,00

10000,00

20000,00

30000,00

40000,00

50000,00

60000,00

70000,00

80000,00

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000

Temps (heures)

Qu

an

tité

d'é

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gie

uti

le d

ans

bat

teir

es (

Wh

)

PV Syst. LoadCv 1.1

Battery Syst.

1.2 2

Time (h)

Usefu

l battery en

ergy (W

h)

NHA 2010, Long Beach, California, USA E. PINTON May 4th 2010

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HYPOTHESIS AND MODEL FOR

BATTERY SYSTEM SIZING

Battery sizing:– Identical to PV system sizing except for the number of PV

modules which is equal to 0.

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2000000,00

4000000,00

6000000,00

8000000,00

10000000,00

12000000,00

14000000,00

0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 12000

Temps (heures)

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ans

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Time (h)

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ergy (W

h)

NHA 2010, Long Beach, California, USA E. PINTON May 4th 2010

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ECONNOMICAL MODEL AND HYPOTHESIS

Basic model:

Cost and life time applied to components are mainly the ones from 2015 UE or DOE targets.

)t(CC)t(Cost i,Comp,plactRe

i

i,Comp,Invest

NHA 2010, Long Beach, California, USA E. PINTON May 4th 2010

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OUPUTS FOR LEVEL CROSSING EQUIPEMENTS

Stack power is relatively low (100 W) because battery is the power supplier (1850 W max) and H2 is the energy supplier.

Cost of the Hybrid FC system is mainly due to battery (55%) then hydrogen storage (33%) and FC system (12 %).

An hybrid Fuel Cell systems can be competitive in comparison to photovoltaic systems, especially in the North of France.

Battery system alone require a huge storage capacity which is not in accordance with size and cost criteria.

FCPV South of

FrancePV North of

FranceBattery

FCStack power 94 W 0 W 0 W 0 W

PV Power of PV modules 0 Wp 330 Wp 660 Wp 0 Wp

H2 STORAGEMass of H2 29.12 kg 0 kg 0 kg 0 kg

BATTERY STORAGEBattery capacity (C10 3771 Wh 11640 Wh 20365 Wh 1577795 Wh

ECONOMICALInvestment cost 3.7 k€ 4.3 k€ 7.8 k€ 397.2 k€

10.4 k€ 10.1 k€ 18.0 k€ 1191.7 k€5.7 €/kWh 5.5 €/kWh 9.8 €/kWh 648.8 €/kWh

10 years

Level crossing equipements

FCPV South of

FrancePV North of

FranceBattery

FCStack power 94 W 0 W 0 W 0 W

PV Power of PV modules 0 Wp 330 Wp 660 Wp 0 Wp

H2 STORAGEMass of H2 29.12 kg 0 kg 0 kg 0 kg

BATTERY STORAGEBattery capacity (C10 3771 Wh 11640 Wh 20365 Wh 1577795 Wh

ECONOMICALInvestment cost 3.7 k€ 4.3 k€ 7.8 k€ 397.2 k€

10.4 k€ 10.1 k€ 18.0 k€ 1191.7 k€5.7 €/kWh 5.5 €/kWh 9.8 €/kWh 648.8 €/kWh

10 years

Level crossing equipements Cost repartition of the hybrid FC system: 10 years

2%

55%

15%5%

13%

5%

5%

Converter

Battery

H2 tank

H2 consumption

H2 delivery

FC Stack

FC Auxi

NHA 2010, Long Beach, California, USA E. PINTON May 4th 2010

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CONCLUSIONS

A Fuel Cell system coupled with battery: – can technically answer to French railway facility constraints

applied to stand alone conditions.– can be competitive in comparison to photovoltaic system.

Battery system alone require a huge storage capacity which is not in accordance with size and cost criteria.

Next step: Prototype manufacturing to bring the demonstration that an Hybrid Fuel Cell system can assure the energy continuity with no maintenance during 18 months.

NHA 2010, Long Beach, California, USA E. PINTON May 4th 2010

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This work has been supported by the French national railway company “SNCF”

Thank you for your attention!

ACKOWLEDGEMENTS