Fuelling our environmental future

Intelligent control systems for fuel cells and natural gas vehicles

ES&E staff drove a dual fuel Volvo to visit Biosphere 2 in Arizona.

In major cities, where smog warnings and air quality control are becoming a way of life, environmentally conscious consumers are searching for alternative ways to power their vehicles. Natural gas, Canada's most plentiful resource, has emerged as a better fuel choice for our vehicles, as it substantially reduces harmful greenhouse emissions. With the emergence of natural gas vehicles and fuel cells showing promise over the long term, North America may soon see major changes in the way energy is made and consumed.

A research project co-funded by Precarn Incorporated, Natural Resources Canada, the Climate Change Action Fund, and NGV Development Fund, and headed by a team of researchers at the Saskatchewan Research Council, has developed a number of intelligent control system products for fuel cell and natural gas vehicles.

By applying artificial intelligence to the system components - namely gas regulators, valves and fittings, instrumentation and storage tanks - researchers have created enabling technologies to solve the technical problems associated with converting vehicles to use gaseous fuels. They have developed ground-breaking products in three areas; intelligent fuel control systems, electronic gas regulators and diagnostic systems for storage tanks.

The purpose of this project was to develop intelligent control systems that would train fuel cells and internal combustion engines for optimum performance. For fuel cells, hydrogen pressure control was provided by an electronic regulator, resulting in improved accuracy and the capability to adjust the set-point pressure on-line. For engines calibrated for gasoline, the neural network was used to train the control system to run on natural gas permitting a low-cost adaptation.

For both hydrogen and natural gas, pattern recognition and an expert system were used in an on-board diagnostic system to identify flaws in high-pressure storage tanks. The system is designed to shut down and inform the operator before a fault becomes a hazard. Over the long term, it would make it unnecessary to over-build storage tanks, reducing the cost of materials like carbon fibre.

Contact Mike Sulatisky at: sulatisky@src.sk.ca.

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