State-of-the-art of DC-DC converters for fuel cell vehicles

In the last few years, fuel cells have gained more interest as a clean source of energy. Fuel cells are current intensive sources, they produce electricity directly from hydrogen and oxygen at low voltage. In fuel cells vehicles (FCV), the main DC-DC converter between the FC and DC bus is a key issue. This converter should be designed and operated with high voltage ratio, high efficiency and high compactness keeping low cost. The purpose of this paper is to present the different topologies of DC-DC converters isolated and nonisolated suitable for FCV, their advantages and disadvantages. Finally the paper gives some guidelines to help the designer to choose among the most suitable converter topologies in term of compactness, efficiency and cost.