Proton Exchange Membrane fuel cell stack with interleaved boost converter for vehicular applications

Abstract — A fuel cell is a clean and green way of generating electricity from the chemical energy. In a normal vehicle, fuel is combusted in internal combustion engines releasing many harmful emissions. But in a fuel cell vehicle hydrogen is made to react with oxygen to produce electricity and hence will be used to curb the pollution. This paper discusses the modeling of a proton exchange membrane fuel cell when used in transportation applications To reduce the cost of testing, a simulation was done in MICROSIM PSPICE by modeling a fuel cell that generates 100 KW of power at a constant voltage of 300 V. The output of fuel cell will be coupled to a boost converter that regulates the output voltage to the required level. A boost converter however can inject current harmonics into the fuel cell which might otherwise damage the durability of fuel cell. Therefore an interleaved boost converter making use of two switch mode power supplies with varying duty cycles and same switching frequency was investigated to reduce current harmonics. With an interleaved boost converter, the current harmonics on fuel cells can be reduced and the output voltage levels can be increased. Further recommendations of the circuit have also been suggested that could lead to development of an efficient and an economical fuel cell vehicle. I