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Ballards Xcellsis™ HY-80 Fuel Cell Engine The Xcellsis™ HY-80 fuel cell engine supplies electric vehicles with electrical power, offering automotive manufacturers the opportunity to develop zero-emission fuel cell vehicles. The Mark 902 Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell module is the heart of the system. It was specially developed for the application in vehicles and has a very high power density. The Mark 902 has a volume of 76 liters and produces 85 Kilowatt of constant electrical power with very high efficiency by combining the reaction gases in a low temperature reaction at 80° Celsius. The balance of plant supplies the fuel cell module with hydrogen and oxygen in the right dosage, pressure and humidity. The Xcellsis™ HY-80 fuel cell engine runs on compressed hydrogen gas. Before it is fed to the proton exchange membrane, it is humidified in a contact humidifier and pressurized to an overpressure of 1 to 2 bar. The humidified ambient air containing the oxygen for the reaction is fed with the same pressure to the other side of the membrane. Excess hydrogen not used in the reaction is recirculated and fed again to the fuel cell module. The Xcellsis™ HY-80 fuel cell system delivers up to 68 kW of unregulated DC current at 250 to 450 volt. It has a total volume of about 220 liters and weights about 220 kg. The system is very dynamic, being able to increase the load from 0 to 90% in less than one second. The Power Distribution Unit (PDU) distributes the electricity produced by the fuel cell module and limits the current to the tolerance range of the main electric drive, compressor, cooling pump and other auxiliaries. Further
components of the fuel cell engine are the cooling pump, various sensors
and the control units that use software specially developed by Ballard
to govern and monitor the complete fuel cell engine. For further information go to: Alwin
Berti
Munich, May 2004
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