Power electronic interface for combined heat and power systems using high temperature PEM fuel cell technology

This paper focuses on using the fuel cell´s characteristics for developing a power electronic interface. To gain the specifications for the DC/DC converter, a 1kW HTPEMFC semi-empirical model was developed to better understand the electrical behaviour of the fuel cell. The DC/DC converter is a crucial component of the power electronic interface, for stationary applications, as it regulates the unstable voltage produced by the fuel cell. Since the focus of this research is towards the residential market, the requirements of the converter is also to obtain a high efficiency while being cost effective and flexible. A two-stage DC/DC boost converter was selected as the most feasible choice. In this paper, a semi-empirical 1kW HTPEM fuel cell model is firstly developed to attain the specifications for the DC/DC converter interface. This is followed by the design of a two-stage DC/DC boost converter, for the fuel cell system. The initial design is improved through an iterative process, all of which are documented and presented in this paper. Finally the performance of the converter is quantified.