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US 2005/0089736 A1Published application
Easily isolated, oversize fuel cell stack cooler plates
AssigneeUTC Fuel Cells, LLC
InventorsJeremy Meyers, Nileshkumar Dave, Jeffrey Lake, Mark Layaw
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A plurality of cooler plates (9) are disposed between fuel cells (8) in a stack (7) and have protrusions (12, 13) which include coolant inlet and outlet channels (15). The protrusions are surrounded by an elastomeric sealant material (35, 36) which forms a seal with the manifold structures (27, 28) to form coolant inlet and outlet manifolds (17, 20). The sealant material prevents coolant from entering fuel cells along the edges thereof, thereby preventing the fuel cells from being poisoned by the coolant. The coolant inlet and outlet manifold structures (27, 28) also define reactant gas manifolds (18, 21).
Claims8
A fuel cell power plant comprising:
- a plurality of fuel cells arranged contiguously in a stack, each of said fuel cells having dimensions in width and height which are substantially equal to the width and height dimensions of the other fuel cells in said stack, whereby the edges of said fuel cells combine to form substantially planar surfaces;
- a plurality of cooler plates, each having cooler inlet channels and cooler outlet channels and cooler flow channels extending between said inlet channels and said outlet channels, said cooler plates being disposed between at least some of said fuel cells, said cooler plates having principal width and height dimensions substantially the same as those of said fuel cells, each cooler plate having a protrusion containing said coolant inlet channels and a protrusion containing said coolant outlet channels, said protrusions extending outwardly from the edges of said cooler plates, thereby extending away from said plane;
- an elastomeric rubber sealant material completely surrounding each of said protrusions and extending between each one of said protrusions and a protrusion adjacent to said one protrusion, said elastomeric sealant material extending on either side of all of said protrusions and extending around said plane sufficiently to form a sealing surface;
- and
- a manifold structure contacting said sealant material and defining coolant manifolds, said manifold structure defining between itself and said sealant material a (a) an antifreeze coolant inlet manifold in fluid communication with said inlet channels or (b) an antifreeze coolant outlet manifold in fluid communication with said outlet manifold channels, and also defining between itself and said sealant material (c) a reactant gas inlet manifold or (d) a reactant gas outlet manifold.
2 more elements
A fuel cell power plant comprising:
- a plurality of fuel cells arranged contiguously in a stack, each of said fuel cells having dimensions in width and height which are substantially equal to the width and height dimensions of the other fuel cells in said stack, whereby the edges of said fuel cells combine to form substantially planar surfaces;
- a plurality of cooler plates, each having cooler inlet channels and cooler outlet channels and cooler flow channels extending between said inlet channels and said outlet channels, said cooler plates being disposed between at least some of said fuel cells, said cooler plates having principal width and height dimensions substantially the same as those of said fuel cells, each cooler plate having a protrusion containing said coolant inlet channels and a protrusion containing said coolant outlet channels, said protrusions extending outwardly from the edges of said cooler plates, thereby extending away from said plane;
- an elastomeric sealant material completely surrounding each of said protrusions and extending between each one of said protrusions and a protrusion adjacent to said one protrusion, said elastomeric sealant material extending on either side of all of said protrusions sufficiently to form a sealing surface;
- and
- a manifold structure contacting said sealant material and defining coolant manifolds, said manifold structure defining between itself and said sealant material a (a) coolant inlet manifold in fluid communication with said inlet channels or (b) a coolant outlet manifold in fluid communication with said outlet channels.
2 more elements
A manifold structure for a fuel cell power plant comprising:
- said manifold structure adapted to be secured to a sealant surface on a fuel cell stack and forming with said sealant surface either (a) an antifreeze coolant inlet manifold or (b) an antifreeze coolant outlet manifold, and also forming with said sealant surface either (c) a reactant gas inlet manifold or (d) a reactant gas outlet manifold.
A manifold structure for a fuel cell power plant comprising:
- said manifold structure adapted to be secured to a sealant surface on a fuel cell stack, said manifold structure having a first chamber defining either (a) an antifreeze coolant inlet manifold or (b) an antifreeze coolant outlet manifold, and having a second chamber defining either (c) a reactant gas inlet manifold or (d) a reactant gas outlet manifold.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.