Buck-Boost DC-DC Converters for Fuel Cell Applications in DC Microgrids—State-of-the-Art

Abstract

The use of fuel cells in DC microgrids has been receiving a lot of attention from researchers and industry since both technologies can deliver clean energy with little to no environmental impact. To effectively integrate fuel cells in DC microgrids, a power converter that can equate the fuel cell’s voltage with the DC microgrid’s reference voltage is required. Based on the typical output voltages of fuel cells, buck-boost topologies are commonly used in this type of application. A variety of DC-DC buck-boost topologies, showing distinctive merits and drawbacks, are available in the literature. Therefore, this paper compiles, compares and describes different DC-DC buck-boost topologies that have been introduced in the literature over the past few years. Additionally, some design considerations are addressed, and future work is proposed.