Fuel cell
AssigneeHonda Motor Co., Ltd.
InventorsNarutoshi SUGITA, Shuhei GOTO, Kentaro ISHIDA, Tetsuya NAKAMURA
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A cell unit of a fuel cell includes a first membrane electrode assembly, a first metal separator, a second membrane electrode assembly, and a second metal separator. Frames are provided at outer circumferences of the first and second membrane electrode assemblies. An oxygen-containing gas supply passage and a fuel gas supply passage, and an oxygen-containing gas discharge passage and a fuel gas discharge passage are provided in one pair of opposite sides of the frames, and a pair of coolant supply passages and a pair of coolant discharge passages are provided in the other pair of opposite sides of the frames at distances from one another.
Claims7
A fuel cell including cell units each formed by stacking an electrolyte electrode assembly and a metal separator in a stacking direction, the electrolyte electrode assembly including a pair of electrodes and an electrolyte interposed between the electrodes, a coolant flow field for allowing a coolant to flow along a separator surface being formed between the adjacent cell units,
- wherein a resin frame member is formed integrally with an outer circumference of the electrolyte electrode assembly;
- a reactant gas supply passage and a reactant gas discharge passage extend through one pair of opposite sides of the resin frame member in the stacking direction as passages of a reactant gas;
- a pair of coolant supply passages and a pair of coolant discharge passages extend through the other pair of opposite sides of the resin frame member in the stacking direction for allowing the coolant to flow therethrough, the coolant supply passages being positioned adjacent to the reactant gas supply passage or the reactant gas discharge passage, the coolant discharge passages being positioned adjacent to the reactant gas discharge passage or the reactant gas supply passage;
- the fuel cell has connection channels connecting the coolant supply passages and the coolant discharge passages with the coolant flow field;
- and
- each of the connection channels has a through hole provided in the metal separator and a through hole provided in the resin frame member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.