An Energy Management of a Fuel Cell/Battery Hybrid System for a Forklift Application

In this paper optimal battery capacity and fuel cell stack power were calculated for the specific application of the fuel cell powered forklift. Optimal energy strategy has been defined for different operation cycles and working conditions. Numerical model of the specific fuel cell powered forklift has been designed and validated together with available experimental results. Simulations results where validated with the experimental data. The most important parameters on the forklift performance have been defined and evaluated, such as: energy lost, battery load cycles etc. The main research outcome of the herein presented study is the novel control strategy for optimization of the PEM FC-Battery hybrid system in real environment/conditions.