Optimal energy management for a fuel cell hybrid locomotive

In order to save fuel and reduce pollution, the research on fuel cell hybrid electric locomotive has been greatly concerned. This paper presents an analysis of the energy management for hybrid locomotive with two power source, which are fuel cell stack and storage battery, respectively. The battery is used to discharge during high power demand, and recharge through regenerative braking. The energy utilization efficiency can be greatly improved through this power hybrid technology. And it can also reduce the pollution during the locomotive running, which has a great interest to protect the environment. To control the power flows of the hybrid system, the fuzzy logic method is adopted to design an operating strategy which is able to adapt the system behavior to different conditions, offering an optimal operation in different situations. This control method not only make the battery SOC at reasonable level, but also make the fuel cell work in the superior performance of the region.