Prodrive announced the development of a new hydrogen fuel cell controller as part of a program part funded by the Technology Strategy Board. The Prodrive PP150 hydrogen fuel cell controller is used to control a 50 kW fuel cell system developed by Intelligent Energy and is suitable for volume production at a price of around 250 pounds per unit.
Prodrive Press Release:
Prodrive develops new hydrogen fuel cell controller
Prodrive has developed a new production-ready ECU specifically for the control of hydrogen fuel cells as part of a program part funded by the
Technology Strategy Board. The unit, called PP150, has been developed in conjunction with fuel cell power systems company, Intelligent Energy, as part of a three year, DTI-funded program to develop fuel cells for real world applications.
The PP150 is being used to control a 50 kW fuel cell system developed by Intelligent Energy. This is a first for the UK fuel cell industry. These units use proton exchange membrane technology, making them robust to use in automotive applications.
One of the project’s aims was to ensure that the fuel cell could be started at sub-zero temperatures. To meet these demands, the control electronics went through a number of design iterations. Initial development was carried out using Prodrive’s rapid prototyping ECU, UP200 which provides a robust, off the shelf hardware platform with built in Simulink® compatibility. This enabled Intelligent Energy to quickly develop their core algorithms and validate them on real world hardware. Following this initial stage Prodrive developed a prototype ECU known as the DP200 which included bespoke hardware for the fuel cell application but retained sufficient
flexibility to support development changes. Once the hardware design was fixed, Prodrive developed the PP150 which is a bespoke ECU suitable for volume production, with potential for a price around £250 per unit.
