Study of inductively coupled fuel cell DMPPT converters

The fuel cell stack power mismatch problem limits the large-scale application of fuel cells. In order to guarantee the normal operation of the series fuel cell bank under fault condition, this paper proposes a multi-port DC converter for fuel cell distributed maximum power tracking based on the coupled inductor principle. The converter is based on the voltage equalization method and consists of a series fuel cell bank with a diode clamping circuit and a Boost converter in sequential cascade. In contrast to the degraded usage method of fuel cell stacks under fault conditions, the voltage equalization strategy does not affect the lifetime of non-faulty fuel cell units, so the overall system is more efficient. The proposed converter combines high output voltage gain and cell voltage equalization due to the use of only one switching tube. Simulation models are used to verify the feasibility and advancement of the proposed converter.