An improved energy management strategy for a hybrid fuel cell/battery passenger vessel

The combination of a fuel cell and an energy storage system for the reduction of fuel consumption and improving the dynamics of hybrid power systems has successfully been used in transportation applications. In order to realise the benefits of hybrid fuel cell power systems, an energy management strategy is essential for distributing the required power properly between the fuel cell and the energy storage system. For a hybrid fuel cell/battery passenger vessel, an improvement to the classical proportional-integral (PI) controller based energy management strategy is presented. This takes fuel cell efficiency into consideration as an input to maintain higher efficiency of fuel cell and reduce stresses on it and hence reduce its fuel consumption.