Control Strategy of a Fuel Cell/Ultra Capacitor Hybrid System

This paper studies a hybrid power system for transportation applications, i.e., fuel cell/ultracapacitor hybrid powertrain. First, the characteristics of fuel cell and ultracapacitor as power sources are summarized. Then the configurations of the hybrid fuel cell powertrains are presented. Finally, example hybrid powertrains are designed and simulated using Simplorer. The simulation results indicate that ultracapacitors can effectively assist the fuel cell to meet the vehicle power demands and help achieve a better performance and a higher fuel economy.