Interleaved Dual Buck Converter for Low-Carbon Hydrogen Production: Electrolyzer Current Control and Input Capacitors Voltage Balancing

This paper proposes a DC-coupled PEM electrolyzer current control scheme combined with an Input Capacitors Voltage Balancing (ICVB) strategy for a three-channel interleaved dual buck converter topology, aimed at low-carbon hydrogen production. Input capacitors voltage imbalance can lead to improper operation of the interleaved dual buck converter topology, potentially damaging the power components. To address this issue, a control scheme featuring differential operation is proposed to regulate the input voltages, alongside the current control of the electrolyzer, directly influencing the amount of hydrogen produced. By controlling 5 out of 6 inductor currents, it is possible to leave one degree of freedom to control the voltage balance of the input capacitors, indirectly controlling the remaining current due to the operating principle of the topology. Simulation results are presented to validate the proposed control scheme for the proposed system with a nominal power of 1MW.