IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v18y2025i1p146-d1558783.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Modular Step-Up DC–DC Converter Based on Dual-Isolated SEPIC/Cuk for Electric Vehicle Applications

Author

Listed:
  • Ahmed Darwish

    (School of Engineering, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YW, UK)

  • George A. Aggidis

    (School of Engineering, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YW, UK)

Abstract

Fuel cells (FCs) offer several operational advantages when integrated as a power source in electric vehicles (EVs). Since the voltage of these cells is typically low, usually less than 1 V, the power conversion system requires a DC–DC converter capable of providing a high voltage conversion ratio to match the input voltage of the motor propulsion system, which can exceed 400 V and reach up to 800 V. The modular DC–DC boost converter proposed in this paper is designed to achieve a high voltage step-up ratio for the input FC voltages through the use of isolated series-connecting boosting submodules connected. The power electronic topology employed in the submodules (SMs) is designed to provide a flexible output voltage while maintaining a continuous input current from the fuel cells with minimal current ripple to improve the FC’s performance. The proposed step-up modular converter provides several benefits including scalability, better controllability, and improved reliability, especially in the presence of partial faults. Computer simulations using MATLAB/SIMULINK ® software (R2024a) have been used to study the feasibility of the proposed converter when connected to a permanent magnet synchronous motor (PMSM). Also, experimental results using a 1 kW prototype composed of four SMs have been obtained to validate the performance of the proposed converter.

Suggested Citation

  • Ahmed Darwish & George A. Aggidis, 2025. "A Modular Step-Up DC–DC Converter Based on Dual-Isolated SEPIC/Cuk for Electric Vehicle Applications," Energies, MDPI, vol. 18(1), pages 1-24, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:1:p:146-:d:1558783
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/1/146/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/18/1/146/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jia, Chunchun & Zhou, Jiaming & He, Hongwen & Li, Jianwei & Wei, Zhongbao & Li, Kunang & Shi, Man, 2023. "A novel energy management strategy for hybrid electric bus with fuel cell health and battery thermal- and health-constrained awareness," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 271(C).
    2. Ioan-Sorin Sorlei & Nicu Bizon & Phatiphat Thounthong & Mihai Varlam & Elena Carcadea & Mihai Culcer & Mariana Iliescu & Mircea Raceanu, 2021. "Fuel Cell Electric Vehicles—A Brief Review of Current Topologies and Energy Management Strategies," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(1), pages 1-29, January.
    3. Abdullah Aljumah & Ahmed Darwish & Denes Csala & Peter Twigg, 2024. "A Review on the Allocation of Sustainable Distributed Generators with Electric Vehicle Charging Stations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-17, July.
    4. Faissal Jelti & Amine Allouhi & Kheira Anissa Tabet Aoul, 2023. "Transition Paths towards a Sustainable Transportation System: A Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(21), pages 1-25, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Emanuele Fedele & Luigi Pio Di Noia & Renato Rizzo, 2023. "Simple Loss Model of Battery Cables for Fast Transient Thermal Simulation," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-13, March.
    2. Li, Menglin & Yin, Long & Yan, Mei & Wu, Jingda & He, Hongwe & Jia, Chunchun, 2024. "Hierarchical intelligent energy-saving control strategy for fuel cell hybrid electric buses based on traffic flow predictions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 304(C).
    3. Tomás R. Pires & João F. P. Fernandes & Paulo J. Costa Branco, 2024. "Driving Profile Optimization for Energy Management in the Formula Student Técnico Prototype," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(24), pages 1-22, December.
    4. Hossein Shayeghi & Ali Seifi & Majid Hosseinpour & Nicu Bizon, 2022. "Developing a Generalized Multi-Level Inverter with Reduced Number of Power Electronics Components," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-20, May.
    5. Georgios Varvoutis & Athanasios Lampropoulos & Evridiki Mandela & Michalis Konsolakis & George E. Marnellos, 2022. "Recent Advances on CO 2 Mitigation Technologies: On the Role of Hydrogenation Route via Green H 2," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-38, June.
    6. Costa, C.M. & Barbosa, J.C. & Castro, H. & Gonçalves, R. & Lanceros-Méndez, S., 2021. "Electric vehicles: To what extent are environmentally friendly and cost effective? – Comparative study by european countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    7. Ramesh Kumar Chidambaram & Dipankar Chatterjee & Barnali Barman & Partha Pratim Das & Dawid Taler & Jan Taler & Tomasz Sobota, 2023. "Effect of Regenerative Braking on Battery Life," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(14), pages 1-24, July.
    8. Damien Guilbert & Gianpaolo Vitale, 2021. "Hydrogen as a Clean and Sustainable Energy Vector for Global Transition from Fossil-Based to Zero-Carbon," Clean Technol., MDPI, vol. 3(4), pages 1-29, December.
    9. Jia, Chunchun & He, Hongwen & Zhou, Jiaming & Li, Jianwei & Wei, Zhongbao & Li, Kunang, 2023. "A novel health-aware deep reinforcement learning energy management for fuel cell bus incorporating offline high-quality experience," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    10. Enyong Xu & Mengcheng Ma & Weiguang Zheng & Qibai Huang, 2023. "An Energy Management Strategy for Fuel-Cell Hybrid Commercial Vehicles Based on Adaptive Model Prediction," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-20, May.
    11. Jong-Wook Kim & Heungju Ahn & Hyeon Cheol Seo & Sang Cheol Lee, 2022. "Optimization of Solar/Fuel Cell Hybrid Energy System Using the Combinatorial Dynamic Encoding Algorithm for Searches (cDEAS)," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-15, April.
    12. Shangzhe Yu & Dominik Schäfer & Shidong Zhang & Roland Peters & Felix Kunz & Rüdiger-A. Eichel, 2023. "A Three-Dimensional Time-Dependent Model of the Degradation Caused by Chromium Poisoning in a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Stack," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(23), pages 1-23, November.
    13. Matthieu Matignon & Toufik Azib & Mehdi Mcharek & Ahmed Chaibet & Adriano Ceschia, 2023. "Real-Time Integrated Energy Management Strategy Applied to Fuel Cell Hybrid Systems," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-21, March.
    14. Li, Yichao & Ma, Chen & Liu, Kailong & Chang, Long & Zhang, Chenghui & Duan, Bin, 2024. "A novel joint estimation for core temperature and state of charge of lithium-ion battery based on classification approach and convolutional neural network," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 308(C).
    15. Abdulgader Alsharif & Chee Wei Tan & Razman Ayop & Ahmed Al Smin & Abdussalam Ali Ahmed & Farag Hamed Kuwil & Mohamed Mohamed Khaleel, 2023. "Impact of Electric Vehicle on Residential Power Distribution Considering Energy Management Strategy and Stochastic Monte Carlo Algorithm," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-22, January.
    16. Marcin Kalinowski & Rafał Koba & Patryk Lipka & Krzysztof Czaplewski & Adam Weintrit & Joanna Witkowska, 2024. "Exploring External Costs on the Example of Sea–Land Transport Chains of Refrigerated Cargo Between Spain and Poland," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(1), pages 1-22, December.
    17. Jia, Chunchun & Li, Kunang & He, Hongwen & Zhou, Jiaming & Li, Jianwei & Wei, Zhongbao, 2023. "Health-aware energy management strategy for fuel cell hybrid bus considering air-conditioning control based on TD3 algorithm," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 283(C).
    18. Shantanu Pardhi & Sajib Chakraborty & Dai-Duong Tran & Mohamed El Baghdadi & Steven Wilkins & Omar Hegazy, 2022. "A Review of Fuel Cell Powertrains for Long-Haul Heavy-Duty Vehicles: Technology, Hydrogen, Energy and Thermal Management Solutions," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(24), pages 1-55, December.
    19. Grzegorz Karoń, 2022. "Energy in Smart Urban Transportation with Systemic Use of Electric Vehicles," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(15), pages 1-5, August.
    20. Wang, Aijia & Wang, Junqi & Zhang, Ruijun & Cao, Shi-Jie, 2024. "Mitigating urban heat and air pollution considering green and transportation infrastructure," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:18:y:2025:i:1:p:146-:d:1558783. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.