A new DC-DC converter for fuel cell powered distributed residential power generation systems

Fuel cell powered distributed residential power generation systems are considered attractive because of their various advantages, such as high efficiency, low pollution, and low noise. A DC-DC converter having a high turn ratio transformer is needed in such a system, to boost the low voltage of the fuel cell to a high level, to enable the DC-AC conversion and to provide isolation. The high turns ratio of the transformer causes a high leakage inductance, and therefore, reduces efficiency, and increases difficulty in control of the DC/DC converter. In this paper a new DC-DC converter for fuel cell residential power generation systems is proposed. The proposed converter uses the leakage inductance for energy conversion, which not only reduces the problems of low efficiency and difficulty of control, caused by leakage inductance, but also eliminates the need for a separate inductor. Lack of a separate inductor helps reduce the cost of the DC/DC converter. Also, soft switching is employed for some of the switches to reduce the switching losses. Consequently, the proposed DC-DC converter has low cost and high efficiency. Simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the proposed DC-DC converter.