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US 7,459,229 B2Granted
Reactant sealing for fuel cell stack
AssigneeForschungszentrum Julich GmbH
InventorsHendrik Dohle, Thomas Bewer
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention relates to a fuel cell stack in which, according to the invention, several elements of the fuel cell stack are advantageously sealed by a seal in order to form a continuous operating material channel. The inventive fuel cell stack can be provided with a very compact design, whereby the layer thickness of an individual fuel cell is, on a regular basis, distinctly less than 1.5 mm and, advantageously, even less than 1.2 mm.
Claims12
A fuel cell comprising:
- two juxtaposed outer cathode plates flanking and defining a cathode space;
- two juxtaposed outer anode plates flanking and defining an anode space, the outer plates each being formed offset from the respective space with a throughgoing small-diameter hole and a throughgoing large-diameter hole, the outer plates being stacked with the small-diameter holes of the cathode plates aligned with each other and with the large-diameter holes of the anode plates and with the large-diameter holes of the cathode plates aligned with each other and with the small-diameter holes of the anode plates;
- and
- respective seals extending through the aligned large diameter holes, one of the seals passing through the cathode space and the other of the seals passing through the anode space, the plates and seals fitting together such that fuel supplied to one of the holes of one of the anode and cathode plates will flow past one of the spaces into the other space and oxidant supplied to the other of the holes of the one of the anode and cathode plates will flow past the other of the spaces into the one space.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.