A novel PEMFC power conditioning system based on the interleaved high gain boost converter

Power converter units are crucial components in proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) energy generation systems. For this reason, and also motivated by the demands in high quality power conditioning for PEMFC systems, we propose the application of an interleaved high gain boost converter topology with a diode clamped multilevel inverter as power interface. The main advantages of the proposed scheme encompass: high voltage conversion ratio, input current ripple mitigation, and voltage balancing across output capacitors. These characteristics make this converter ideal for grid-connection purposes, acting as an interface for renewable energy sources that provide low voltages and demand low current ripples. The underlying theoretical analysis as well as simulation and experimental validation are presented in this paper.