System Design and Energy Management for a Fuel Cell/Battery Hybrid Forklift

Zhiyu You, Liwei Wang, Ying Han and Firuz Zare
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Zhiyu You: Key Laboratory of Electronic Information (Southwest Minzu University), State Ethnic Affairs Commission, Chengdu 610041, China
Liwei Wang: Key Laboratory of Electronic Information (Southwest Minzu University), State Ethnic Affairs Commission, Chengdu 610041, China
Ying Han: School of Electrical Engineering, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu 610031, China
Firuz Zare: Power and Energy Group, University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD 4072, Australia

Energies, 2018, vol. 11, issue 12, 1-24

Abstract: Electric forklifts, dominantly powered by lead acid batteries, are widely used for material handling in factories, warehouses, and docks. The long charging time and short working time characteristics of the lead acid battery module results in the necessity of several battery modules to support one forklift. Compared with the cost and time consuming lead acid battery charging system, a fuel cell/battery hybrid power module could be more convenient for a forklift with fast hydrogen refueling and long working time. In this paper, based on the characteristics of a fuel cell and a battery, a prototype hybrid forklift with a fuel cell/battery hybrid power system is constructed, and its hardware and software are designed in detail. According to the power demand of driver cycles and the state of charge ( SOC ) of battery, an energy management strategy based on load current following for the hybrid forklift is proposed to improve system energy efficiency and dynamic response performance. The proposed energy management strategy will fulfill the power requirements under typical driving cycles, achieve reasonable power distribution between the fuel cell and battery and, thus, prolong its continuous working time. The proposed energy management strategy is implemented in the hybrid forklift prototype and its effectiveness is tested under different operating conditions. The results show that the forklift with the proposed hybrid powered strategy has good performance with different loads, both lifting and moving, in a smooth and steady way, and the output of the fuel cell meets the requirements of its output characteristics, its SOC of battery remaining at a reasonable level.

Keywords: fuel cell; battery bank; hybrid forklift; buck-boost DC/DC converter; energy management strategy; state of charge (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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