Heating performance characteristics of stack coolant source heat pump using R744 for fuel cell electric vehicles

Abstract

The objective of this study is to investigate the performance characteristics of a stack coolant source heat pump using R744 with a stack coolant heat source for fuel cell electric vehicles under cold weather conditions. Electric heaters are currently used in fuel cell electric vehicles, and the high levels of energy consumption involved lead to lower fuel efficiency and a reduction in the vehicle's driving range. In order to improve the efficiency of the fuel cell electric vehicles in this study, a heat pump using R744 as a refrigerant and making use of wasted heat from the stacks is developed to cover the heating capacity. This heat pump is tested and performance optimized for stack coolant heat recovery under the compressor speeds, air temperatures, and flow rates of the interior heat exchanger, as well as the coolant flow rates of the CO2-coolant heal exchanger. In addition, the heating capacity of the tested system was sufficiently attained over 5.0 kW at the coolant flow rate of 5.0 l/min under extremely cold weather conditions of -20 degrees C.