A/C-APU – Innovative air conditioning unit based on hydrogen to extend the driving range of EVs and FCEVs

In this work, an innovative vehicle air-conditioning unit that provides heat, cold and electric power is presesented. The environmentally friendly unit is based on the integration of two alternately working compact metal hydride reactors between a hydrogen pressure tank and a fuel cell. At the component-level the design and testing of two small lab-scale reactors is explained. At the vehicle-level it is shown that it is possible with this hydrogen-based unit to reutilise up to 75% of the compression work in the tank to increase the range of fuel cell cars by up to 8% in hot weather conditions.