Fuel Cell Power Conditioning for Low Power Applications

Abstract

Fuel Cells are the important building blocks of hydrogen-based applications. Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFCs) are useful for ambient temperature operating conditions. Fuel Cells cannot be interfaced to loads directly owing to many sources of power losses. Power Conditioning and Interface are equally important for driving loads using Fuel Cell generated power. Paper discusses the requirements of power conditioning, types of DC–DC converters, Experimental work performed on DC–DC converter using BJT, IGBT, Voltage Doubler IC and DC–DC converter ICs. The results have indicated promise of interfacing circuits for fuel cell based applications.