Heavy-Duty Fuel Cell Vehicle Powertrain Hybridization and Optimization

Ongoing research is aimed at investigation of a high-efficiency hybrid powertrain for heavy-duty fuel cell buses. Although the latest generation of fuel cell stacks are much improved due to significant technological advancements made over the past decade, vehicles equipped with these modules still needs much improvement in terms of durability and total cost of ownership to gain more competitive advantages over traditional internal combustion engine based solutions. The research mainly focuses on developing the power conversion platform and energy management strategies among different powertrain components for performance and cost optimization, and improvement of fuel economy and durability of the fuel cell and battery.

High-Power Renewable Energy Conversion and Integration

Due to the pressing energy related issues facing today's humankind, alternative and renewable energy sources are gaining increasing importance in the global energy map. Our research aims at investigating efficient and reliable power conversion interfaces and control for integrating various alternative energy sources such as wind and solar. Areas of interest include development and analysis of suitable and cost-effective converter topologies to bridge the energy source and the grid, optimal modulation and control schemes for improvement of efficiency and reliability, as well as performance enhancement of energy extraction under different working conditions.

Converter and Control for High-Power Electric Drives

Every year, high-power industrial motors consume a large percentage of the total generated electricity worldwide. As the workhorse of the modern industry, these machines are increasingly operated by advanced electric drives to satisify stringent requirements from various industrial processes and the utility. Our research aims to develop high-performance and efficient high-power converters for next-generation industrial drives, with a focus on converter design/analysis with advanced new devices and topologies, and investigation of optimal modulation and control to adapt the drive systems to different industrial applications for efficiency and performance improvement.

High Efficiency and Power Density Power Supplies with Wide Bandgap Devices

     

The increasing need for bandwidth and data in the information industry has been driving growing demand for high efficiency power supplies for powering data centres and telecom networks. In the world of telecom power supplies, power density and power efficiency have always been the key drivers for technological advancements. Benefiting from maturation of the new generation of wide bandgap power devices, ongoing research is focused on developing high efficiency and power density solutions for the next generation of power supplies.

Charging Facility for Plug-in Electric Vehicles

    
With the paradigm shift taking place in the transportation sector towards electric and hybrid electric vehicle options, one important aspect demanded by this significant change is the R&D of reliable and efficient charging infrastructure which provides efficient and fast charging capability for the vehicles while conveniently integrating distributed energy source and storage. Our research focuses on identifying grid-friendly charging station architectures for integrating grid and alternative energy sources, energy storage systems, grid-tied converter and control, power management of the charging station, and realization of the bidirectional fast charger to interface vehicle batteries.

Main Research Sponsors and Collaborators