Performance comparison of input current ripple reduction methods in UPS applications with hybrid PEM fuel cell/supercapacitor power sources

Abstract

An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system with different input current ripple reduction methods is proposed, and a comparison research has been conducted about these methods. The proposed UPS system consists of a 63-cell 300W proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell stack, two 16-cell supercapacitors (SCs) in series, a high-efficiency push–pull DC/DC converter and a half-bridge DC/AC inverter. Besides that the traditional push–pull DC/DC converter has inherent advantages of low input-current stress and high voltage conversion ratio, the SCs, LC filter, and an active clamp circuit are employed to reduce the input current ripples in the UPS system. First, the input current ripple generation and performance without an external component are analyzed and modeled in the PEM fuel cell. Then the input current ripple reduction methods mentioned above are proposed and operated in the designed UPS system. Finally, the experimental results show that the input current ripple can be further reduced by using different current ripple reduction approaches, and the active compensation method has better performance than the passive compensation method. The input current ripple is less than 5% of the rated input current.