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

Find Similar History 34 Claim Ownership Request Data Change Add Favourite

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

CoPED ID
574b0bb1-44ba-49e4-8f66-9f8f8da34dc4

Status
Closed


Value
£42,000

Start Date
Jan. 1, 2022

End Date
March 30, 2022

Description

More Like This


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.

DigipulSE Ltd LEAD_ORG
DigipulSE Ltd PARTICIPANT_ORG

Bryn Richards PM_PER

Subjects by relevance
  1. Fuel cells
  2. Vehicles
  3. Compressors
  4. Hybrid cars
  5. Fuels
  6. Patents
  7. Architecture
  8. People's Republic of China

Extracted key phrases
  1. Small fuel cell market
  2. Passenger vehicle fuel cell application
  3. Fuel cell compressor
  4. Fuel cell vehicle prototypes.\[pr
  5. Large fuel cell
  6. Feasibility study grant
  7. Cost air compressor
  8. Flow turbomachine compressor
  9. Low air flow rate
  10. Particular Digipulse inverter
  11. Novel inverter architecture
  12. Cost reduction
  13. Similar air pressure
  14. Tremendous market entry opportunity
  15. Interleaved controller

Related Pages

UKRI project entry

UK Project Locations