Fuel Cell Fed High Gain DC-DC Boost Converter for Electric Vehicle and Islanded Mode of Operation

Fuel Cells have great potential as a distribution generator due to its fast growing technology, cleanliness, high energy efficiency, extremely low emission and low noise. But for medium power applications, low fuel cell output is finding it difficult to meet the DC bus demand. So as to increase the output voltage and to meet the DC bus voltage stability a stepup converter with high gain is required. Thus a step-up converter with high-gain, wide range in input voltage, low voltage stress and common ground structure between input and output ports are used. Extreme duty cycles are not needed and only one pulse signal is used for two power switches in the circuit topology. This high gain boost DC-DC converter(HGBDC) can be operated as a low gain converter for driving BLDC motor fed from a fuel cell and as a high gain converter for feeding three phase AC load at same duty ratio, operating in two different topology. Feasibility of high gain DC-DC converter for both vehicular and AC load applications are also analysed in this paper. Voltage stress across the semiconductor devices during both applications are analysed and verified the feasibility of converter during both operations.