Modeling and performance studies of a fuel-cell powered boost converter

Author

Yu, Dachuan ; Yuvarajan, S.

Author_Institution

Electr. & Comput. Eng. Dept., North Dakota State Univ., Fargo, ND, USA

fYear

2004

fDate

19-23 Sept. 2004

Firstpage

713

Lastpage

717

Abstract

The proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell is becoming popular as an alternate power source for various applications. The paper presents a novel circuit model for a PEM fuel cell that can be used to design and analyze fuel-cell power system. The PSPICE-based model uses BJTs and LC elements available in the PSPICE library with some modification. The static and dynamic characteristics obtained through simulation are compared with experimental results obtained on a commercial fuel-cell module. The possibility of operating the fuel cell at its maximum power point is investigated. The performance of the fuel cell module when feeding a boost converter is studied through simulation and experiment and the waveforms are presented. The need for a buffer capacitor to make up for the voltage drop under transient switching operation is established.

Keywords

SPICE; bipolar transistors; capacitors; power engineering computing; proton exchange membrane fuel cells; switching convertors; BJT; LC element; PEM fuel cell; PSPICE; boost converter; buffer capacitor; dynamic characteristics; fuel-cell power system; maximum power point; power source; proton exchange membrane fuel cell; static characteristics; transient switching operation; voltage drop; Biomembranes; Circuits; Fuel cells; Industrial power systems; Power system analysis computing; Power system dynamics; Power system modeling; Power system simulation; Protons; SPICE;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Telecommunications Energy Conference, 2004. INTELEC 2004. 26th Annual International

Print_ISBN

0-7803-8458-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/INTLEC.2004.1401549

Filename

1401549