An innovative boost converter for fuel cells stationary generation systems

Use of fuel cells for distributed power generation requires the development of a cost effective power converter in order to adapt the fuel cell DC output to the load AC voltage. The main application requirements are high efficiency, low input ripple and low cost. Moreover, for low power systems the voltage step from DC to AC values is considerably high. To achieve such goals, an innovative current fed boost converter with active clamp is proposed, which uses only three low-side switches. In the paper a review of power systems based on fuel cells is given as well as a comparison between standard full-bridge boost and the proposed converter. The design procedure, prototyping, simulation and experimental results are introduced confirming the suitability of the proposed approach to such low cost and high volume applications.