Input current ripple reduction and high efficiency for PEM fuel cell power conditioning system

Abstract

To solve the issues of the open-loop control accuracy in a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell power conditioning system (PCS) with active clamp push-pull DC/DC converter for input current ripple reduction, a novel closed-loop digital-controlled method is proposed. The proposed PEM fuel cell PCS consists of a high-efficiency highstep-up current-fed resonant push-pull DC/DC converter and a half-bridge inverter. A fully digital-controlled strategy in the active-clamped circuit is employed to reduce the voltage spike and low frequency current ripple (LFCR) on the power switches for improving the lifespan of PEM fuel cell and raising the system reliability. By using the closed-loop current ripple reduction control, the LFCR is further reduced. A 300 W prototype is implemented and tested. Experimental results show that the minimum efficiency at full load is about 94.8% and the ripple current is less than 1.2% of the rated input current.

Ripple-Free Multiphase Interleaved Stacked Converter for High-Power Applications

“…Authors in [6]- [10] have reported that current ripples on FC systems significantly increase losses, resulting in fuel waste and a considerable reduction in FCs durability and lifespan. Specifically, the work in [11] reported shown that by reducing the ripple from 24.3% to 9.9%, the efficiency of an FC system increases by around 2%. Hence, reducing or eliminating output current ripple is one of the primary characteristics expected to maximize the lifespan and efficiency of an FC system.…”

A Coupled-Inductor DC-DC Converter with Input Current Ripple Minimization for Fuel Cell Vehicles

“…However, the method focused on the low-frequency current ripple and employed an extra circuit. A maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control with a perturbed duty ratio D p was employed in Reference [26] to simply reduce the input ripple current of a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell. However, it was only suitable for AC output applications.…”