Integrated power conditioner topology for fuel cell based power supply systems

In this paper it is presented a new integrated power conditioner topology proposed for a fuel cell based on power supply system. The proposed converter combines the conventional ZVS active clamp full bridge boost converter structure with the sinusoidal pulse width modulation technique to guarantee a sinusoidal output voltage. Particularly, the proposed fuel cell power conditioner is intended for stand-alone AC power generation and low voltage fuel cell input. The main characteristic of the proposed topology is the use of fewer components when compared to the conventional two-stage power conditioners approach reducing the cost. In addition, the total efficiency is increased by reducing the power processing stages. Therefore, it is expected that the proposed integrated power conditioner topology could be effectively utilized for fuel cells applications. It is also presented a compressive analysis of the main characteristics of the fuel cell which will determine the design parameters for the power conditioner. In order to validate the proposed approach, simulation and experimental results are provided for a 100 W integrated power conditioner prototype with 120 V ac output voltage and 26 V dc input voltage.