IIT Bombay Pioneers Fuel Cell EV Component Optimization

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay on Tuesday said it has developed an optimisation method for determining the required weight and size distribution of components in fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). The new method can optimise the weight, cost, and range of FCEVs by recommending the optimal size for the radiator and a thermal energy storage (TES) unit, increasing their efficiency and helping expedite commercialisation, IIT Bombay said in a statement.

Electric vehicles have gained popularity and are considered the future of green mobility and a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels. According to IIT Bombay, unlike battery electric vehicles (BEVs), which need charging, FCEVs run on fuel cells, and are referred to as zero-emission vehicles, because the only by-product from the engine is water vapour.

However, a fuel cell generates excess heat that requires large radiators for cooling, which increases vehicle size and weight, it stated. To address this issue, IIT Bombay's Prof Prakash C Ghosh and Nadiya Philip proposed a new thermal management system using paraffin wax as the phase change material (PCM) to store thermal energy.

It allows reduction in radiator size and maintains a constant temperature for the coolant, improving vehicle performance, it said. The method combines EES and TES to calculate the ideal sizes of each component, namely, the radiator, fuel cell, EES, and TES systems. The team used a mathematical technique called pinch analysis to determine the ideal sizes for these components.

The researchers have estimated that the proposed method can allow a reduction in the radiator size in heavy-duty vehicles like trucks by almost 2.5 times by simply optimising the sizes of the parts, the statement said. This method can aid in the design of more efficient and cost-effective cooling systems in such vehicles, it said.