H2-BusAC: Low Carbon Hydrogen Bus Air Conditioning System with Compact Hydrogen Storage and Hydrogen Fuel Cell

在全球范围内，氢燃料电池汽车取代传统汽油燃料汽车的发展越来越受到人们的关注。这些都归功于H2FC的一些重要优势，包括低碳排放、无空气污染和充足的能源资源。它们更适合于人口密集地区的交通工具，如城市公交车，在那里严格要求减少交通空气污染和限制碳排放。传统上，H2FC总线利用高压（约350 bar）储罐在车上储存氢气。这导致了乘客的安全问题，并占用了相对较大的空间。此外，为了填满船上的高压氢气罐，需要在专门设计的氢燃料站使用更高的氢压力（约500巴），这可能会消耗过多的电力。另一方面，H2FC客车必须安装空调系统，以保持乘客舱的舒适条件。通常，空调系统使用蒸汽压缩循环，并由电力驱动。空调系统的电力消耗需要燃料电池（FC）发电提供额外的电力，从而大大降低了公交车的最大行驶里程。因此，人们立即需要一种具有紧凑、安全的储氢装置和高效空调系统的H2FC总线。在这项可行性研究中，将为下一阶段的原型开发设计、模拟、优化和指定一种用于H2FC总线（H2-BusAC）的新型储氢和空调系统。将开发一种专门设计的氢反应堆热交换器，以中压储存氢气，而不是使用高压储罐在船上储存氢气。这可以减少船上高压氢气储存的安全问题。同时，加氢站氢气的充注压力以及相应的压缩压力和功率都大大降低。在路上，来自反应堆热交换器的氢释放到车上的燃料电池中，产生动力并驱动公交车。同时，在夏季需要冷却时，反应堆从乘客舱吸收热量来产生冷却。在冬季，空间供暖由燃料电池发电过程产生的余热来满足。传统氢燃料电池公交车的一些基本设计和运行条件将从工业合作伙伴那里获得。

Globally, the development of hydrogen fuel cell (H2FC) vehicles has attracted more and more attention to replacing the conventional gasoline fuel vehicles. These are attributed to a number of important advantages from the H2FC ones including low carbon emissions, no air pollution and sufficient energy resources. They are more suitable for transports in populated areas such as buses in cities, where less transport air pollution and limited carbon emissions are strictly demanded. Conventionally, an H2FC bus utilises high pressure (about 350 bar) tanks to store hydrogen on board. This leads to safety concerns for the passengers on board and takes relatively larger space. In addition, to fill the high pressure hydrogen tanks on board, even higher hydrogen pressure (about 500 bar) is needed at a specially designed hydrogen fuelling station which can consume excessive power. On the other hand, an air conditioning system in an H2FC bus is necessarily installed to maintain the comfortable condition of the passenger compartment. Normally, the air conditioning system uses a vapour compression cycle and is driven by electricity. The power consumption in the air conditioning system requires extra electricity from the fuel cell (FC) power generation and thus reduces significantly the maximum bus driving range. Subsequently, a H2FC bus with compact and secured hydrogen storage and a highly efficient air conditioning system is immediately desired. In this feasibility study, a novel hydrogen storage and air conditioning system for the H2FC bus (H2-BusAC) will be designed, simulated, optimised and specified for prototype development in the next stage. Instead of using high pressure tanks to store hydrogen on board, a specially designed hydrogen reactor heat exchanger will be developed to store the hydrogen with moderate pressure. This can diminish the safety concerns for the high pressure hydrogen storage on board. Meanwhile, the charging pressure of hydrogen at a hydrogen fuelling station and corresponding compression pressure and power are therefore significantly reduced. On the road, the hydrogen from the reactor heat exchanger releases to a fuel cell on board to generate power and drive the bus. In the meantime, the reactor absorbs heat from the passenger compartment to produce cooling during the summer period when cooling is demanded. During the winter period, space heating is satisfied by the waste heat from the fuel cell power generation process. Some essential design and operating conditions for conventional hydrogen FC buses will be obtained from industrial partners.