I cannot start this report without saying that this European mobility experience has been great thanks to the people that I met and the beautiful city that welcomed me. My traineeship took place in Valencia (Spain) from the 17th of October to the 31st on January.
The CMT – Motores Tèrmicos – Universidad Politecnica de Valencia was the hosting organization, and the professor Ricardo Novella was my supervisor and leader of the research group in which I was involved.
I worked in the field of innovation for a cleaner and efficient transport. In order to mitigate global warming, also caused by the high CO2 emissions of the transport sector, a revolution of the transportation system with more efficient powertrains is mandatory. Several countries are planning strategies to achieve this goal through fiscal incentives and regulations. The European Union proposed a ban of internal combustion engine-powered vehicles starting from 2035 and trucks manufacturers in Europe must reduce the CO2 emissions of newly sold vehicles by 30% until 2030 compared to 2019.
Even though hydrogen is not the only path to decarbonization, it is considered an essential option among a set of other technologies. It has the advantage of being a versatile and clean energy vector acting as a buffer for renewable energy sources.
In this scenario, fuel cell powered vehicles (FCVs) represent a key technology for the automotive industry. Interest in them is constantly growing, as well as their market share. In order to contribute for this energetic transition, I worked with numerical simulations of FCVs. Once I arrived, I started analyzing data from the literature to develop my numerical model. A validated and optimized fuel cell system model has been integrated into the complete vehicle model developed in the GT-Suite
environment.
Subsequently, I developed a proper energy management strategy to minimize the hydrogen consumption of the vehicle, coupling the vehicle model with artificial intelligence features. With the achieved results, I was able to write a scientific paper in collaboration with the research group that hosted me. During my work I certainly increased my skills, both from the technical and personal point of views. Thanks to regular meetings I increased my capability to work in group sharing my idea.
This is the professional part of my experience that I liked the most. I’ve also increased my competences in data analysis, time management and autonomy. I’m sure that this experience will help me in my future professional career. It is something I would redo and would recommend to anyone.
Marco Piras, student at University of Naples_Federico II
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