Design of a Nonisolated Fuel Cell Boost Charger for Lithium Polymer Batteries With a Low Output Ripple

Abstract

In the design of a fuel cell charger, it is important to find a suitable topology and to design the converter to guarantee the performance of both the fuel cell and the battery. Most of the chargers developed so far have used step-down converters. However, since a small fuel cell stack can only generate a low voltage, it is necessary to use a step-up converter to charge batteries. In this paper, a nonisolated boost charger topology with an additional output inductor for a proton exchange membrane fuel cell is presented to meet the strict ripple requirements for the battery charge, and its control method using a proportional-integral (PI) controller is detailed. The feasibility of the boost charger and its control method is then verified through the experimental results.