Designing High-Voltage and Large-Capacity Battery Packs for Fuel-Cell Hybrid Railroad Propulsion System

Due to the problem of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions, internal combustion engines in a lot of transportation systems are being electrified. For the railroad propulsion system, it is essential to apply a high-voltage/large-capacity energy source in order to ensure that the system operates properly. Thus, fuel-cell and rechargeable battery systems are being considered nowadays. The battery system can receive and store all regenerative energy to improve energy efficiency. In addition, since the battery pack of a propulsion system utilizing a hydrogen fuel-cell requires continuous charging/discharging, regardless of the railroad vehicle’s driving profile, the battery pack is designed to ensure its stable use and to minimize maintenance costs. Consideration should be given to the characteristics of railroad vehicles. In this research, a hydrogen fuel-cell hybrid railroad vehicle propulsion system specification, which has been studied recently, was applied to study the considerations in the design of high-voltage/large-capacity battery packs for railroad vehicles. In particular, the passive and active cell-balancing circuit and an algorithm for the stable management of battery packs for hybrid railroad vehicles in which a continuous charging/discharging operation is repeated are proposed and verified through experiments.