Objectives  This paper aims to study the problems that the external electrical characteristics of a hydrogen fuel cell are soft, its dynamic characteristics are poor and its system stability is susceptible to the influence of propulsion load in marine hydrogen storage DC electric propulsion systems.

  Methods  First, an analysis is performed of the output external electrical characteristics of the hydrogen fuel cell and the propeller load conditions of the marine electric propulsion system, then a ship-engine-propeller model and a frequency-domain model of drive control system for a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM) are set up. Next, a speed-loop bandwidth design method is proposed, considering the external electrical characteristics of hydrogen fuel cell and propeller load conditions. Finally, on basis of the parameters of a mother ship, an electric propulsion system for a hydrogen-battery DC electric propulsion ship in a hardware-in-loop experimental platform is established to verify the proposed method.

  Results  The experimental results show that the speed response of the motor has no overshoot under this method, and the speed-loop fluctuation is reduced by 5 r/min when the load torque disturbance occurs.

  Conclusions  The speed-loop bandwidth design method proposed in this paper improves the comprehensive characteristics of the ship hydrogen storage DC electric propulsion system, and is easy to implement in engineering.