Low cost high efficiency DC-DC converter for fuel cell powered auxiliary power unit of a heavy vehicle

In this paper, a new dc-dc converter for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) powered auxiliary power unit (APU) is proposed. The proposed converter does not consider the leakage inductance of the transformer as a parasite and uses it for energy transfer, thus avoiding problems of low efficiency and difficulty in control, caused by leakage inductance. The need for a separate filter inductor is also eliminated. Soft switching is done for some of the switches of the proposed converter, thereby further increasing the efficiency of the converter. Thus, the achieved low cost and high efficiency of the proposed converter make it suitable for SOFC powered APU applications. Simulation and experimental results are presented to verify the proposed dc-dc converter. The achieved cost and efficiency of the prototype are 50.8$/kW and 90%, respectively