Fuel cells for electric transportation of the future

To create an experimental lab infrastructure directly connected to the SIAD hydrogen production plant, Nuvera Fuel Cells decided to engineer a container capable of hosting up to eight power generator engines during testing.

Paolo Zucchi says: “It hasn’t been an easy task to fit everything we needed inside a container. We wanted eight test benches, flexible and independent from each other, capable of safely running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, under authentic conditions. The necessary hydrogen is taken through a dedicated piping from the SIAD production plant next to it, properly regulated and then distributed inside the container to the eight power generator engines, compliant with the applicable safety standards. The most demanding task of the project has been the one related to the power management.

We were looking for AC drives that were not only compact enough to fit inside the limited available space but also flexible and most importantly, suited for this application. In fact, since we had to fully test the behavior of our products, we didn’t want to manage uncertainties or issues related to the electrical power equipment while running the tests. We found the solution in the Danfoss AC drives family, which had already been used with great satisfaction by our colleagues in Hyster-Yale in The Netherlands. They used AC drives to develop a solution for converting a diesel port truck into a fuel cell-powered one.”

Paolo Zucchi, Engineering Manager of Nuvera Fuel Cells, explains:

“In Nuvera, we have developed solutions for electrical mobility based on fuel cells with compact engines providing 45 kW and 60 kW net power output, making them very appealing for mobility applications. In order to optimize these products and guarantee a maximum level of reliability, we’ve decided to run long-term durability testing on our fuel cell engines in an experimental laboratory located inside the industrial site of SIAD S.p.A., near Bergamo, Italy, where hydrogen is produced. Our new lab infrastructure will give us the possibility to optimize our products on the basis of power cycles simulating the real vehicle application of our final customers.”

Power control in the lab adapts voltage level delivered by the fuel cells, which varies according to the power of the load and current delivered. It must also guarantee the full energy recovery of the electricity generated during the test cycles, returning it to the grid.

“Energy sustainability was another essential requirement of the project,” underlines Fabio Nassi, who is the electrical engineer that followed the project for Nuvera, “therefore, thanks to the expert support of Danfoss Drives engineers, we have developed a configuration for maximum flexibility in defining the test cycles to which our generator modules are subjected as well as the complete recovery of the produced energy.”

The same solution is replicated eight times, once for each fuel cell. Each test station is independent from the others and the test equipment allows Nuvera to test both 45 kW and 60 kW generator modules, as well as any other Nuvera Fuel Cells developed in the future with the same class.