Hydrogen refueling infrastructure design for personal mobility devices using frugal engineering approach

Abstract

More than 150 Hydrogen refueling stations were built around the world in the past 10 years. Much of the technical issues with passenger fuel cell car were discussed and studied. However, fuel cell passenger cars are still far from mass production stage. The problem mainly lies with the high cost of fuel cell car production and insufficient hydrogen refueling infrastructure. While the future of fuel cell passenger cars are not clear, fuel cell for personal mobility devices like bicycles get more and more attractive. This is mainly due to the simplicity in system design and reducing cost of small size hydrogen fuel cells. But for this technology to be commercialized, affordable hydrogen refueling stations is crucial. This study discusses solutions for small sized hydrogen refueling stations based on pressure equalization and simulates the Hydrogen utilization ratio based on different equipment setup. The study is also supported with the experimental data from prototype fuel cell vehicles developed by eMobility in Singapore. © 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd.