Optimal sizing and evaluation of efficient fuel cell utilization for fuel cell battery hybrid electric ferry

This paper presents a comprehensive power source sizing method for a fuel cell and battery electric ferry. The method incorporates a power management strategy based on optimization techniques aimed at reducing the voyage operation cost and increasing the fuel cell efficiency which is a primary energy source for propulsion. The proposed sizing strategy based on particle swarm optimization estimates the operation cost of various proton exchange membrane fuel cell stack configurations to determine the optimal structure for high-power applications. Furthermore, the integrated design and optimization scheme for the electric ferry provides further insights into sizing results and their implications on ferry operation by using MATLAB. The correlation between selecting various component parameters and their impacts on ferry operations is verified through dynamic programming. Data collected from a short-haul ferry is used to analyze the optimal power source size and the related cost factors. The thorough design process and the resulting optimal sizing parameters are effective for estimating the operational cost that increases fuel cell utilization and providing a further aspect of real-time ship operations.