Abstract: The hazardous effects of pollutants from conventional fuel vehicles have caused the scientific

world to move towards environmentally friendly energy sources. Though we have various renewable
energy sources, the perfect one to use as an energy source for vehicles is hydrogen. Like electricity,
hydrogen is an energy carrier that has the ability to deliver incredible amounts of energy. Onboard
hydrogen storage in vehicles is an important factor that should be considered when designing fuel cell
vehicles. In this study, a recent development in hydrogen fuel cell engines is reviewed to scrutinize the
feasibility of using hydrogen as a major fuel in transportation systems. A fuel cell is an electrochemical
device that can produce electricity by allowing chemical gases and oxidants as reactants. With anodes
and electrolytes, the fuel cell splits the cation and the anion in the reactant to produce electricity.
Fuel cells use reactants, which are not harmful to the environment and produce water as a product
of the chemical reaction. As hydrogen is one of the most e_cient energy carriers, the fuel cell can
produce direct current (DC) power to run the electric car. By integrating a hydrogen fuel cell with
batteries and the control system with strategies, one can produce a sustainable hybrid car.
Keywords: hydrogen; fuel cell; battery; clean transportation; electric vehicle

INTRODUCTION

In recent years, due to the continuous improvement of the world economy, people's living standards are getting
higher and higher, so people's purchasing power is also greatly improved, so the car into the tens of thousands
of households. So the question is coming. First: the vast majority of the world's cars are driven by internal
combustion engines, fuel is gasoline or diesel, and the world's oil resources are increasingly less and more
expensive so the cost of fuel vehicles will be higher and higher. Second, the internal combustion engine is the
environmental pollution problems, because the internal combustion engine fuel is gasoline or diesel, so the
emissions of exhaust gas contains a lot of harmful substances, is the environment we live on a great degree of
pollution, to us the health caused a great threat. As a result of these two reasons to make the new energy
vehicle research has been widely attentionHow to fi nd alternative alternatives to internal combustion engines,
there are two aspects to consider: 1: highly effi cient energy consumption. 2 low emissions and low pollution.
Electric cars to meet these two requirements, and the biggest advantage of electric cars is the noise is small,
low pollution, vibration, and high energy efficiency.

The fuel cell electric vehicle as the leading technology of electric vehicles, fuel cell is the use of
electrochemical power generation of a power generation device, in the case of constant temperature in
accordance with the chemical way, without the heat of the case of electricity directly from the chemical energy
conversion from the carnot cycle limit so the energy utilization rate is very high and pollution is very small,
which makes it an ideal energy, will be more and more accepted by people, and with the fuel cell technology
more and more mature, fuel cell technology, fuel cell vehicles will certainly be a great development, fuel cell
vehicles will account for more and more market share.

Now, the development trend of new energy vehicles is zero emissions of pure electric vehicles and ultra-low
emissions of hybrid electric vehicles. In recent years, although China's rapid economic development, but at the
same time the environment has been a serious damage, greatly reduce the air quality, and the destruction of the
air environment is a large part of the reason is because the traditional fuel vehicle emissions, of the exhaust gas
contains a large number of harmful substances, these substances greatly endanger our health. Therefore, the
new energy vehicles have been widespread concern, at present, nissan, toyota, BYD and many other well-
known brands have their production of electric vehicles on the market.
PRINCIPLE OF FUEL CELL

There are various types of FC systems. However, the principle of their function is similar. For a fuel
cell system, three pillars are required: an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte. FCs are categorized by
the type of electrolyte material used. An FC can be composed of hundreds of individual cells, but each
has the three same fundamental components. The electrolyte is located between the cathode and the
anode. Figure depicts a schematic of a polymer electrolyte FC (PEMFC) operation diagram [38].
This FC type is also known as a proton exchange membrane FC. The PEMFC is what is most commonly
used in mobile power applications, such as vehicles. While the electrolyte material used varies
depending on the type of FC, the general function of the FC is as follows—fuel (pure hydrogen) is fed
into the anode compartment of the fuel cell while air or pure oxygen is fed into the cathode side of the FC. On
the anode side of the cell, electrons are separated as the gas tries to make its way through the
electrolyte membrane. The membrane acts as a filter to separate the electrons and the hydrogen ions
while only allowing the hydrogen ions to pass through. In the cathode compartment, the hydrogen
ions that passed through the membrane combine with the oxygen atoms from the air supply to produce
H2O as a by-product; heat is also produced as a by-product [39]. Unlike internal combustion engines,
where the fuel is mixed with air and fuel, there is separation of the fuel and the oxidant with no
combustion of the fuel in an FC. Therefore, FCs do not produce the harmful emissions that internal
combustion engines produce.

TYPES OF FUEL CELLS

1. Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC)

Solid polymer membranes are used as the electrolyte in PEMFCs. The polymer membrane
is perfluorosulfonic acid referred to as Nafion. This polymer membrane is acidic; hence, the ions
transported are hydrogen ions or protons. The PEMFC is fueled with pure hydrogen, and the oxidant
is air or pure oxygen. PEMFCs are low temperature fuel cells that conduct hydrogen ions (H+),
making them not fuel-flexible. These fuel cells are the most widely used in the transportation sector
because they are low temperature FCs, operating around 80 _C, thus they have relatively short
starting and stopping times. Another advantage to PEMFCs is that they have very high efficiency and power
density in the vehicle engine size class [45]. These features are well-suited to a vehicle power
source where power density is desired and the dynamic power demands are significant. Some of the
drawbacks to PEMFCs include a higher risk of CO poisoning and that they require cooling.

The different components of a PEMFC are

1. bipolar plates,
2. electrodes,
3. catalyst,
4. membrane, and
5. the necessary hardware such as current collectors and gaskets

2. Phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC)

Phosphoric acid fuel cells (PAFC) were first designed and introduced in 1961 by G. V. Elmore and H.A
Hanner. In these cells phosphoric acid is used as a non-conductive electrolyte to pass positive hydrogen ions
from the anode to the cathode. These cells commonly work in temperatures of 150 to 200 degrees Celsius. This
high temperature will cause heat and energy loss if the heat is not removed and used properly. This heat can be
used to produce steam for air conditioning systems or any other thermal energy consuming system. A key
disadvantage of these cells is the use of an acidic electrolyte. This increases the corrosion or
oxidation of components exposed to phosphoric acid
3. Alkaline fuel cell (AFC)
The alkaline fuel cell or hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell was designed and first demonstrated publicly by
Francis Thomas Bacon in 1959. It was used as a primary source of electrical energy in the Apollo
space program.[41] The cell consists of two porous carbon electrodes impregnated with a suitable
catalyst such as Pt, Ag, CoO, etc. The space between the two electrodes is filled with a
concentrated solution of KOH or NaOH which serves as an electrolyte.
Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC)
4. The electrolyte in this fuel cell is a solid, nonporous metal oxide, usually Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2. The cell
operates at 600-1000 °C where ionic conduction by oxygen ions takes place. Typically, the anode is Co-ZrO2
or Ni-ZrO2 cermet, and the cathode is Sr-doped LaMnO3. Early on, the limited conductivity of solid
electrolytes required cell operation at around 1000 °C, but more recently thin-electrolyte cells with improved
cathodes have allowed a reduction in operating temperature to 650 – 850 °C. Some developers are attempting
to push SOFC operating temperatures even lower. Over the past decade, this has allowed the development of
compact and high-performance SOFC which utilized relatively low-cost construction materials.