All-electric ships (AES) are considered as an effective solution for reducing greenhouse gas emissions as they provide a better platform to use alternative clean energy sources such as fuel cells (FC) in place of fossil fuel. Even though FCs are promising alternative, their response is not fast enough to meet load transients that can occur in ships at sea. Therefore, high-density rechargeable battery storage systems are required to achieve stable operation under such transients. Generally, in such hybrid systems, dc/dc converters are used to interface the FC and battery into the dc link. This paper presents an intelligent FC power management strategy to improve FC performance at various operating points without employing dc/dc interfacing converters. A hybrid AES driveline model using genetic programming is utilized using Simulink and GeneXProTools4 to formulate operating FC voltage based on the load current, FC air, and fuel flow rates. Genetic algorithm is used to adjust air and fuel flow rates to keep the FC within the safe operating range at different power demands. The proposed method maintains FC performance as well as reduces fuel consumption, and, thereby, ensures the optimal power sharing between the FC and the lithium-ion battery in AES application.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	all-electric ships, FC control strategy, FC power Management, fuel cells, genetic algorithms
Research Division:	Engineering
Research Group:	Electrical engineering
Research Field:	Electrical energy generation (incl. renewables, excl. photovoltaics)
Objective Division:	Energy
Objective Group:	Energy efficiency
Objective Field:	Transport energy efficiency
UTAS Author:	Jayasinghe Arachchillage, SDG (Dr Shantha Jayasinghe Arachchillage)
UTAS Author:	Negnevitsky, M (Professor Michael Negnevitsky)
ID Code:	120553
Year Published:	2017
Web of Science® Times Cited:	31
Deposited By:	Seafaring and Maritime Operations
Deposited On:	2017-08-28
Last Modified:	2018-04-18
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