Feasibility of cost reduction in a fuel cell compressor using interleaved controllers

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Digipulse will use this feasibility study grant to assess the technical and commercial potential of its novel inverter architecture (patent pending WO2021069479) in a small, high-speed, motor-driven compressor being developed by a Chinese partner for a passenger vehicle fuel cell application. The application is forward-looking and aligned with market trends in China, so there is a tremendous market entry opportunity. The technically challenging nature of the project means that novel solutions, including this particular Digipulse inverter, have the potential to be pulled through to commercial maturity.China produces 20m passenger cars per year, of which 400k are hybrids.\[statista.com\] At the top level, China aims to make hybrid vehicles mainstream as part of the "Made in China 2025" plan. This will lead to growth in China's small fuel cell market. In the last five years, SAIC, Cherry and BAIC have all produced fuel cell vehicle prototypes.\[PR Newswire\]Small fuel cells require similar air pressure to large fuel cells (having the same basic chemistry and technology), but they require lower air flow rates. Low-cost air compressors are turbomachines, and these produce pressure according to the linear velocity of their blade tips. Low-flow turbomachine compressors have small diameters and must spin extremely quickly to produce acceptable pressure ratios. This drives a requirement for cheap inverters capable of controlling high-speed motors.