Fuel Cells for Electric Power Generation: Peculiarities and Dedicated Solutions for Power Electronic Conditioning Systems

Abstract

The Fuel Cells (FCs) output power is usually generated at low DC voltage. The output voltage is not constant and it depends on the operation conditions. Furthermore, the FC dynamic response is slower than the transients typically requested by loads; hence, in many applications, the FC generators must be interfaced with the loads and the other possible energy/power sources. For these reasons, the FC stack output power and/or the batteries/supercapacitors input/output power must be conditioned by means of an electronic power converter. The purpose of the paper is to present the main issues related to the conditioning of FC power output; in particular, considering the specific requirements of the interface electronic converters in the two most important applications: micro distributed generation (or cogeneration) and the transportation systems. The paper mainly discusses the basic circuit topologies of the DC/DC converters dedicated to the FC power conditioning, in particular considering the Proton Exchange Membrane FC technology