Current ripple minimization of a PEM fuel cell via an interleaved converter to prolong the stack life

摘要

This paper focuses on to prolong the Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack life via an interleaved double switch buck-boost converter. PEM fuel cells are environmental friendly energy sources, and widely used in several applications such as electrical vehicles, power plants, back-up power units, thanks to their fast start-up ability, portability, and efficient operation. In the steady-state, the fuel cell current ripple may result in damage to the fuel cell chemical structure, so it is required to extract its power via a power converter that can overcome this issue. Therefore, in this work, a power converter topology and a control method are proposed in order to reduce the converter input current ripple in both buck and boost operation modes with the help of its two input inductors. In addition to that, sharing input current via these inductors decreases input capacitance voltage stresses and average current flowing through the interleaved inductors thus smaller input capacitance and inductors also increase the cost effectiveness of proposed converter. The simulation results indicate that the proposed interleaved buck-boost topology reduces the input current ripple, and leads less settling time hence better dynamic response owing to its interleaved structure.