Environomic design for electric vehicles with an integrated solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) unit as a range extender

This article investigates an innovative concept of vehicle propulsion. An electric vehicle with limited battery packs is coupled with an innovative converter – a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell with gas turbines system (SOFC- GT). This energy integrated converter is characterized by high energetic efficiency – around 70%, which includes also the integrated on board fuel reforming. Thus, the concept presents the advantage to extend the vehicle basic electric range thanks to this highly efficient converter. A second advantage is the reforming of a liquid fuel on board. Thus the H2 storage is avoided. The liquid fuel is methane produced from biomass and liquefied at 200 bars pressure in the vehicle tank. The vehicle concept is modeled under Matlab/Simulink as a serial range extender. The innovative conversion system of the integrated reforming, SOFC and gas turbines modules (GT) is modeled with a map based approach. The range extender is so introduced into a standard electric vehicle. The innovative range extender vehicle is thus optimized according to techno-economic and environmental criteria. The optimization is performed on the vehicle for optimal mobility service.