Fixed Route Refueling-Strategy for Fuel Cell Trucks

Abstract

Road logistics are essential to ensure the smooth flow of production and delivery of goods to their destination. Heavy-duty transportation places high demands on the power supply and driving range. Fuel cell electric powertrains appear to be the most suitable solution in the context of zero-emission targets for long-haul trucks. While several companies are working on the development of drivetrains and vehicle concepts, the supply of the required hydrogen remains a challenge. Many uncertainties in the logistics industry are caused by the lack of hydrogen fuel stations. This paper presents a concept to detect suitable hydrogen fuel stations along a planned route and select those that minimize hydrogen consumption. The concept is applied to a known set of fuel stations in Germany and a fixed route defined by the operational task of the truck. First, fuel stations that are relevant to the operational task are identified. Then, the energy consumption of the refueling strategy is minimized by solving the fixed-route vehicle-refueling problem (FRVRP), taking into account vehicle characteristics and unknowns such as the precise distance to the refueling station. An external application programming interface provides the route information. The optimization is then implemented as a mixed integer program (MIP). The resulting strategy indicates the sequence of fuel stations that need to be visited to reach the route destination in the most energy-efficient way. The implementation of the strategy shows that the operation of heavy-duty hydrogen vehicles in Germany is feasible with certain boundary conditions. Therefore, integrating the refueling strategy into the navigation task to avoid running out of fuel is a step towards reaching the zero-emission targets.