High Gain Converter Based Fuel Cell-Battery System for Electric Vehicles and Residential Applications

The usage of carbon-rich fuel for power generation and vehicle technologies has accelerates environmental depletion. For this rapid rise in pollutants, fuel cell vehicles are a superior solution. The combination of a fuel cell and a battery has become a clean and environmentally beneficial approach to power an electric vehicle. Similarly, higher utility demand can be supplied by using a vehicle to AC load application. During vehicle's idle conditions, the fuel cell's generated power can be utilized to meet the AC load requirements. To meet the DC bus voltage requirement, fuel cell voltage has to step up with a wide voltage gain. Boosting the voltage with a wide voltage range, high gain and reduced voltage stress can be obtained by the high gain boost converter presented in this paper. The converter feasibility for vehicular and AC load applications are analyzed through MATLAB simulation. Further, the paper has analyzed the application of Li-ion battery to meet the dynamic load conditions and peak load demand. Finally, regenerative braking for range extension and power flow management of fuel cell-battery system for different conditions are also analyzed in this paper.