Development of A Family of High Voltage Gain Step-Up Multi-Port DC-DC Converters for Fuel Cell-based Hybrid Vehicular Power Systems

Battery assisted fuel cell based vehicular power systems are feasible solutions for transportation electrification. Step up DC-DC converters play an important role in energy conversion process of these systems. Due to uncertain nature and low voltage level of fuel cells, large voltage gain converters are desired. This paper proposes a family of non-isolated step-up DC-DC multi-port converters for hybrid FC + battery vehicular power systems with smart grid services capability. Fewer active and passive components compared to other step-up topologies in the literature, extendibility, simple power flow management, and low current and voltage ripples are among the benefits of this multi-port converter family. Design and control of these converters are discussed, and the simulations are conducted for one of the proposed topologies. In the simulation scenario, a 60-kW FC + battery vehicle system is used as the baseline for real-world application. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness of this step-up multi-port converter and the peak efficiency of 95.6% was recorded. Also, a lab-scale prototype of the converter is built and tested under various power flow scenarios to validate the simulation results.