Design and implementation of a ripple-free interleaved zeta converter for humane livestock killing application

This paper presents a humane livestock killer which is realized with two zeta converters and two half-bridge inverters. A ripple-free circuit is introduced into each of the zeta converter for achieving output current with ripple-free feature and for generating high pulse voltages to cause the breakdown of livestock skin, hair or hoof in feet, hence speeding up livestock killing. Moreover, by using the interleaved zeta converters with ripple-free circuit, volume and size of output filter can be reduced. On the other hand, two half-bridge inverters are used to chop dc voltage into pulse voltage at low frequency for sustaining the desired killing current during livestock killing interval. Finally, a prototype of the humane livestock killer with maximum skin breakdown voltage of 10 KV, killing voltage of 250 V, killing current of 2 A, and killing time of 6 s is designed and implemented for verifying its feasibility.