Title :
A new DC/DC converter for solid oxide fuel cell powered residential systems
Author :
Sternberg, Kyle ; Gao, Hongwei
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., Montana State Univ., Bozeman, MT
Abstract :
A low-cost high-efficiency DC/DC converter for use in residential fuel cell applications is proposed in this paper. The converter must accept a low voltage, high current input from the fuel cells and convert the power to a high voltage output. This DC/DC converter uses several technologies to achieve the high-efficiency, low-cost goal, including zero-voltage switching, a unique parallel input / series output topology, three interleaved converters, and the ability to turn off a unit during light loads. These technologies combined allow the converter to maintain soft switching over a wider operating range, reduce passive component size, output current ripple, and the necessary transformer turn ratio. The proposed DC/DC converter has been simulated to confirm its design goals and is currently being realized in hardware. Efficiency is expected to be above 96% in the final design. A cost analysis of the proposed design has been performed and the converter meets the low cost goal.
Keywords :
DC-DC power convertors; power utilisation; solid oxide fuel cells; zero voltage switching; DC/DC converter; soft switching; solid oxide fuel cell powered residential systems; zero-voltage switching; Costs; DC-DC power converters; Fuel cells; Hardware; Low voltage; Performance analysis; Solids; Switching converters; Topology; Zero voltage switching; DC/DC Converter; Distributed Power Generation; Fuel Cell; Interleave; Soft Switching;
Conference_Titel :
Industrial Electronics, 2008. IECON 2008. 34th Annual Conference of IEEE
Conference_Location :
Orlando, FL
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-1767-4
Electronic_ISBN :
1553-572X
DOI :
10.1109/IECON.2008.4758311