Title :
Self-starting DC:DC boost converter for low-power and low-voltage microbial electric generators
Author :
Degrenne, Nicolas ; Buret, François ; Morel, Florent ; Adami, Salah-Eddine ; Labrousse, Denis ; Allard, Bruno ; Zaoui, Abderrahime
Author_Institution :
Lab. Ampere, Univ. de Lyon, Ecully, France
Abstract :
This paper describes and evaluates an original boost converter able to harvest energy from low-power and low-voltage power sources. Design and sizing are made according to specifications issued from the stringent characteristics of microbial electric generators such as microbial fuel cells and microbial desalination cells. The harvested power is 10mW under input voltage Vin=0.3V (33mA input current). The design of the converter is adapted from a classical boost topology. It includes a self-oscillating circuit for autonomous operation, and a simple analog maximum power point regulation. Measurements of the conceived discrete realization enable evaluation of the circuit. Best global efficiency of 74% is achieved under realistic harvesting conditions.
Keywords :
DC-DC power convertors; electric generators; energy harvesting; microbial fuel cells; current 33 mA; energy harvesting; low- voltage power sources; low-power microbial electric generators; low-voltage microbial electric generators; microbial desalination cells; microbial fuel cells; power 10 mW; self-oscillating circuit; self-starting DC-DC boost converter; simple analog maximum power point regulation; voltage 0.3 V; Anodes; Cathodes; Desalination; Fuel cells; Inductors; Integrated circuit modeling; Resistance;
Conference_Titel :
Energy Conversion Congress and Exposition (ECCE), 2011 IEEE
Conference_Location :
Phoenix, AZ
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4577-0542-7
DOI :
10.1109/ECCE.2011.6063865