Hydrogen-powered tractor as a technology platform
The hydrogen tractor “Helios” served and serves as a technology platform:
- To test the entire hydrogen handling process
- To test and optimize power management from energy generation by the fuel cell, the electrical consumers and a high-voltage battery with a deliberately small capacity.
The challenge
The main challenge was power management in all operating conditions. In particular, the challenge of handling high levels of regenerative power during electric braking while the battery’s absorption capacity was severely limited.
The solution
The solution was implemented by combining the power components and integrating the fast-acting brake chopper in the DCDC converter between the fuel cell and bat-tery, and its programmability.
Wolfgang Breu Project Lead Electrification:
The HELIOS hydrogen tractor served and continues to serve us as a technology carrier for investigating the possible future use of hydrogen as an energy source for agricul-tural machinery.
Focus: Integration of the fuel cell and sophisticated power management in all operat-ing conditions. Here we benefited from the programmability of the ARADEX inverters and DC/DC and the support of the project engineers.
