Fully internal manifolded and internal reformed fuel cell stack

In a generally rectangular fuel cell stack comprising a plurality of fuel cell units, each said fuel cell unit comprising an anode and a cathode, an electrolyte in contact with one face of said anode and an electrolyte in contact with an opposite facing face of said cathode, and a separator plate separating said cell unit between said anode and cathode forming an anode chamber between one face of said separator plate and said anode and a cathode chamber between the opposite face of said separator plate and said cathode, said anode chamber in gas communication with fuel gas supply and outlet and said cathode chamber in gas communication with oxidant gas supply and outlet, said gas supplies and outlets fully internally manifolded within said fuel cell stack, a plurality of reforming chambers along the fuel cell stack axis each said reforming chamber formed by two separator/reformer plates, one having the configuration of one face of said separator plate facing one of said anode chambers and the second having the configuration of said other face of said separator plate facing one of said cathode chambers, said two separator/reformer plates sealingly joined in their edge area to enclose a reformer chamber, conduits through an extended manifold wet seal structure providing reaction gas and steam communication from an internal reactant gas manifold to said reformer chamber, and conduits through an extended manifold wet seal structure providing enriched hydrogen product gas communication to an internal fuel gas supply manifold, thereby providing fully internal manifolding of reactant gas and steam to and product gas from each said reformer unit in said fuel cell stack.

A process for production of electricity in a generally rectangular fuel cell stack comprising a plurality of fuel cell units, each said fuel cell unit comprising an anode and a cathode, an electrolyte in contact with one face of said anode and an electrolyte in contact with an opposite facing face of said cathode, and a separator plate separating said cell unit between said anode and cathode forming an anode chamber between one face of said separator plate and said anode and a cathode chamber between the opposite face of said separator plate and said cathode, the improvement comprising;

• passing fuel and oxidant gases through fully internal manifold conduits to and from each fuel cell unit in said fuel cell stack, said internal manifold conduits formed by said electrolytes and said separator plates each having a plurality of aligned perforations, each said perforation being surrounded by a flattened manifold wet seal structure extending to contact said electrolyte on each face of said separator plate forming a separator plate/electrolyte wet seal under cell operating conditions to form a plurality of gas manifolds extending through said cell stack, conduits through said extended manifold wet seal structure providing fuel gas communication between one set of said manifolds and said anode chambers on one face of said separator plates and conduits through said extended manifold wet seal structure providing oxidant gas communication between the other set of said manifolds and said cathode chambers on the other face of said separator plates, thereby providing fully internal manifolding of fuel and oxidant gases to and from each said unit fuel cell in said fuel cell stack;
• and passing hydrocarbonaceous reactant gas to said fuel cell stack a plurality of reforming chambers each formed by two separator/reformer plates, one having the configuration of said one face of said separator plate facing one of said anode chambers and the second having the configuration of said other face of said separator plate facing one of said cathode chambers, said two separator/reformer plates sealingly joined in their edge area to enclose a reformer chamber, conduits through said extended manifold wet seal structure providing reaction gas and steam communication from a third set of said manifolds to said reformer chamber passing said reactant gas over a reforming catalyst forming enriched hydrogen product gas and passing said enriched hydrogen product gas through conduits through said extended manifold wet seal structure providing enriched hydrogen product gas to a fuel gas supply manifold, thereby providing fully internal manifolding of reactant gas and steam to and product gas from each said reformer unit in said fuel cell stack.