Urban Fuel Cell Bus Feasibility Study Approach Based on the Geospatial Data Analysis

The interest and number of sales of hydrogen urban buses has growth among Public Transport Operators significantly at the turn of 2010s and 2020s. The application of vehicles equipped with fuel cells can lead to eliminating several drawbacks of electric buses equipped with current generation of lithium-ion batteries. The hydrogen buses can offer greater single charge distance than electric buses and allow quick refueling to ensure high daily operability. However fuel cell propulsion systems are more sensitive to specific work conditions, such as high average speed or harsh topographic driving profile. The most common and conventional approach to check the possibility of a vehicle to operate on the selected route is to perform a test drive. As of the beginning of year 2022 the fuel cell buses and hydrogen refueling stations appear only in several cities across Europe, so for most use cases it is not possible to obtain hydrogen bus for the field testing. The approach proposed by the authors involves gathering geospatial data for analysis by covering the route, ideally by similar electric or internal combustion engine bus, which are more widely available. By using mathematical vehicle model and received georeferenced measurement information, the hydrogen bus manufacturer can perform feasibility study on the analyzed route to check the possibility of vehicle successfully driving on the route. Using the approach proposed by the authors the control strategies for fuel cell and battery operation can be optimized in order to improve crucial bus characteristics (such as prolongation of fuel cell lifespan, operation in battery range with lowest internal resistance and managing the heat generation caused by energy storage systems working with high currents). The research findings indicate that the precisely build calculation model combined with high resolution geospatial data can successfully replace standard test drive methods used for vehicle feasibility studies. The described approach additionally lower down the time and cost needed to perform the analysis compared to the conventional vehicle road assessment method.