A Study of Fuel Cell Hybrid Auto Rickshaws Using Realistic Urban Drive Cycles

The popular three-wheeled vehicles known as auto rickshaws are common in Asian cities where due to their older two- stroke engines they have been significant contributors to the current air quality issues that plague the urban areas. Recent changes to four-stroke engines as well as those powered by diesel, compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) reduce the pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. However, because of the large number of vehicles emission of such vehicles is still an important issue. Some studies about converting an internal combustion engine (ICE) rickshaw to an electrical or fuel cell rickshaw have been done recently. Most of the rickshaw conversion studies used one of the standard urban drive cycles. Such drive cycles do not accurately portray the demands on a rickshaw. Thus, results with unrealistic drive cycles may be misleading. In this study a comparison between ICE and hybrid fuel cell rickshaw configuration was done using a realistic drive cycle. An ICE and two candidate fuel cell rickshaw models were created and assessed using the Powertrain System Analysis Toolkit (PSAT) software. Two drive cycles that would closely emulate the true demands on a rickshaw operated in an urban environment were developed in order to more accurately simulate the performance of conventional and fuel cell hybrid rickshaws as a means of determining the current feasibility of fuel cells for use in rickshaws .