Fuel Cell Power-Conditioning System (PCS)

Dr. Sudip K. Mazumder
Friday, January 20, 2006
1:30PM - 3:00PM
ENG II - room 102

Abstract


An energy-efficient, fuel cell power-conditioning system (PCS) for stationary application is described, which reduces the variations in the current drawn from the fuel-cell stack and can potentially meet the $40/kW cost target. The PCS consists of a zero-ripple boost converter (ZRBC) followed by a soft-switched and multi level high-frequency (HF) inverter and a single-phase cycloconverter. The ZRBC comprises a new zero-ripple filter, which significantly reduces the input low- and high-frequency current ripples, thereby potentially enhancing the durability of the stack. A phase-shifted sinewave modulation of the multi-level HF inverter is outlined, which results in the zero-voltage switching (ZVS) of all four switches without the use of any auxiliary circuit components. For such a sine-wave modulation technique, a greater than 90% ZVS range is obtained.

Further, the line-frequency switching of the cycloconverter (at close to unity power factor) results in significantly lower switching losses. The intermediate dc bus facilitates the inclusion of power systems based on other forms of alternative-energy techniques (e.g., photovoltaics/high-voltage stack). Experimental results obtained using a 5 kW prototype of the proposed PCS is demonstrated; it achieves a high overall efficiency of > 90% and satisfactory performance.

Short Bio


Sudip K. Mazumder is the Director of Laboratory for Energy and Switching-Electronics Systems (LESES) and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Illinois, Chicago. He has over 10 years of professional experience and has held R&D and design positions in leading industrial organizations. His current areas of interests are interactive power-electronics/power networks, renewable and alternate energy systems, and new device and systems-on-chip enabled higher power density.

Prof. Mazumder received the ONR Young Investigator Award, NSF CAREER, and the DOE SECA awards in 2005, 2003, and 2002, respectively. He also received the Prize Paper Award from the IEEE Transactions on Power Electronics and the IEEE PELS in 2002. Dr. Mazumder was University of Illinois Chicago's (UIC's) team leader for 2005 IEEE International Future Energy Challenge competition, in which UIC secured first place n USA and 3rd place in the world. Dr. Mazumder is an Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics and till 2005 the Associate Editor for IEEE Power Electronics Letters. He has published over 50 refereed and invited journal and conference papers and is a reviewer for 6 International Journals.