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US 7,740,988 B2Granted
Fuel cell plate structure having baffles in wet seal area
AssigneeFuelCell Energy, Inc.
InventorsZhiwen Ma, Chao-Yi Yuh, Dana A. Kelley, Mohammad Farooque, William Beesley
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An assembly having fuel cell plate structure adapted for use in a fuel cell in which gas flow channels are arranged to carry process gas adjacent the active and wet seal areas of the fuel cell, the plate structure having one or more baffles arranged such that when the plate structure is in the fuel cell the baffles of the plate structure cause the process gas flowing adjacent the wet seal areas to be directed away from the wet seal areas and toward the active areas of the cell.
Claims42
An assembly having fuel cell plate structure for use in a fuel cell and comprising:
- a plate member including a plurality of corrugations forming gas flow channels for carrying process gas, said plate member having a central area adjacent active areas of a fuel cell and opposing first and second side edges bordering said central area, said first and second side edges being adjacent inactive wet seal areas of a fuel cell,
- the plate member having a plurality of baffles situated in the path of the corrugations and spaced along said opposing first and second side edges of said plate member and extending at least in a direction transverse to flow direction of said process gas flowing through said corrugations, such that when the plate structure is in a fuel cell, the plurality of baffles of the plate structure cause the process gas flowing through said corrugations and adjacent said opposing first and second side edges of said plate member to be directed away from said opposing first and second side edges and toward said central area of said plate member.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.