Abstract: | Medium-duty trucks(MDTs) and Heavy-duty trucks (HDTs) are the major contributors of greenhouse gas (GHG) and pollutant emissions in China, and it is urgent to speed up the conversion of diesel trucks into electric vehicles. Fuel cell (FC) and lithium battery electric vehicles are the two most important technical routes at present. Lithium battery electric vehicles have been successfully adopted in short and medium distance transport and in public transport after more than ten years of development. The advantages of fuel cells in terms of energy supply and energy density are more suitable for the application in long-distance HDTs than those of lithium batteries, and the former is under rapid development. However, a diesel tractor can easily reach the driving range of 3 000 km by using a large fuel tank, while the driving range of a typical fuel cell tractor is at most 500 km, far less than that of the diesel one. Therefore the low driving range due to the low hydrogen storage capacity of the HDT, caused by the low volume density of hydrogen, hinders the development of fuel cell HDTs. Though improving the energy conversion efficiency of the fuel cell stack and the fuel cell system may be of limited assistance, the related materials innovation can
play a critical role in increasing the driving range. At present, the most practical and effective solutions includes maximizing the hydrogen storage capacity, reducing the energy consumption of the auxiliary system, improving the efficiency of the mechanical transmission and the power electronic system, and reducing vehicle energy consumption during driving. Finally this paper focuses on the measures to increase the onboard hydrogen storage and to reduce the coefficient of air resistance, as well as their impact on
improving the driving range. According to the Technology Roadmap 2.0 for energy-saving and new energy vehicles, the FC-HDT can achieve a driving range of 800 km by 2030. |