Optimization of the fuel economy and emissions for plug in hybrid electric recreational boat energy management strategy using genetic algorithm

Abstract

Today, the transportation sector has undergone a change from conventional vehicle to hybrid electric vehicle especially land-based with the aim to reduce fuel consumption and emissions. However, water transportation is also one of the contributors of excessive use of fuel and emissions. Therefore, water transport needs changes as it has been done on land transport, especially cars. In this paper, plug in hybrid electric recreational boat (PHERB) is introduced. PHERB is a special model because in PHERB powertrain configuration, it only needed one EM compared to existing configuration with energy management strategy (EMS).  In this work, the optimal EMS for PHERB are presented via genetic algorithm (GA). To estimate the fuel economy and emissions, the model of PHERB is employed numerically in the MATLAB/SIMULINK environment with a special EMS using Kuala Terengganu (KT) river driving cycle. Simulation result of PHERB optimization using GA improve to 15% for KT river driving cycles without violating the PHERB performance.