Solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell assembly, fuel cell stack, and method of operating cell assembly
AssigneeHonda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorsSeiji Sugiura, Yoshinori Wariishi, Naoyuki Enjoji, Narutoshi Sugita
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A cell assembly is formed by stacking a first unit cell and a second unit cell to each other. The first unit cell includes a first unified body, and the second unit cell includes a second unified body. In the cell assembly, the first and second unit cells have structures different from each other.
Claims8
A solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell assembly, comprising a plurality of unit cells stacked to each other, the unit cells each having a unified body including an anode, a cathode, and a solid polymer electrolyte membrane disposed between said anode and said cathode, said fuel cell assembly further comprising:
- fuel gas inlet holes and fuel gas outlet holes penetrating through said unit cells in the stacking direction;
- and
- fuel gas passages connected to said fuel gas inlet holes and said fuel gas outlet holes and formed along a reaction surface of said solid polymer electrolyte membrane,
- wherein a cross-sectional area in the stacking direction of said fuel gas passages of one unit cell is substantially different than a cross-sectional area in the stacking direction of said fuel gas passages of an adjacent unit cell, and
- wherein the size of said inlet holes of the one unit cell is substantially the same as the size of said inlet holes of the adjacent unit cell, and the size of said outlet holes of the one unit cell is substantially the same as the size of said outlet holes of the adjacent unit cell.
A fuel cell stack comprising, a plurality of cell assemblies stacked to each other,
- wherein each of said plurality of cell assemblies includes a plurality of unit cells stacked to each other, and each of said plurality of unit cells has a unified body including an anode, a cathode, and a solid polymer electrolyte membrane between said anode and said cathode, said fuel cell assembly further comprising:
- fuel gas inlet holes and fuel gas outlet holes penetrating through said unit cells in the stacking direction;
- and
- fuel gas passages connected to said fuel gas inlet holes and said fuel gas outlet holes and formed along a reaction surface of said solid polymer electrolyte membrane,
- wherein a cross-sectional area in the stacking direction of said fuel gas passages of one unit cell is substantially different than a cross-sectional area in the stacking direction of said fuel gas passages of an adjacent unit cell, and
- wherein the size of said inlet holes of the one unit cell is substantially the same as the size of said inlet holes of the adjacent unit cell, and the size of said outlet holes of the one unit cell is substantially the same as the size of said outlet holes of the adjacent unit cell.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.