Title: Advancements in power conditioning units for electric vehicle applications: a review

Authors: Ravindranath Tagore Yadlapalli; Anuradha Kotapati; Rajani Kandipati

Addresses: Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, R.V.R. & J.C. College of Engineering Chowdavaram, Guntur, 522019, Andhra Pradesh, India ' Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, VNR Vignana Jyothi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Bachupally, Hyderabad, 500090, Telangana State, India ' Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Vignans Lara Institute of Technology and Science Vadlamudi, Guntur, 522213, Andhra Pradesh, India

Abstract: Fuel cells are renowned for their direct energy conversion, quiet operation, fuel flexibility and zero CO₂ emissions. However, each fuel cell (FC) produces a very low output voltage of around 0.5-0.7 V. Therefore, it is necessary to design high gain DC-DC converters for boosting such low voltages either from a single FC or FC stack besides minimising the current ripples. Moreover, DC-AC converters are required to produce an AC voltage either for the single or three phase utility loads. This paper presents a review on various prominent DC-DC and DC-AC converter topologies. The performance of various DC-DC converter topologies is analysed in terms of number of components, converter switching frequency, galvanic isolation, power rating and efficiency. The salient features of potential DC-AC converters with low total harmonic distortion and high efficiency are presented. This paper is very useful for the design engineers in choosing the right topology.

Keywords: fuel cell; distributed generation; regenerative fuel cells; energy storage; dc-dc converters; voltage conversion ratio; dc-ac converters.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEHV.2021.115198

International Journal of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles, 2021 Vol.13 No.1, pp.81 - 115

Received: 08 Feb 2020
Accepted: 22 Apr 2020
Published online: 24 May 2021 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article