Patent ID: 8486570

Claim:
A drive circuit comprising: a DC bus having a positive DC link and a negative DC link, the DC bus configured to supply power to a load; a first fuel cell coupled to the positive DC link of the DC bus via a first voltage converter, the first fuel cell configured to provide a first power output to the DC bus; a second fuel cell coupled to the positive DC link of the DC bus via a second voltage converter, the second fuel cell configured to provide a second power output to the DC bus supplemental to the first fuel cell; an energy storage device coupled to the positive DC link of the DC bus via a third voltage converter; and a controller programmed to cause the energy storage device to: receive energy from the DC bus when a combined output of the first and second fuel cells is greater than a power demand from the load; and provide energy to the DC bus when the combined output of the first and second fuel cells is less than the power demand from the load; wherein at least one of the first and second voltage converters is one of a boost converter and a bi-directional buck/boost converter.