Folded edge seal for reduced cost fuel cell
First Claim
Patent Images
1. A fuel cell stack including a plurality of stacked fuel cells, each fuel cell including an active area, said fuel cell stack comprising:
- a plurality of membranes where each fuel cell in the stack includes a membrane;
a plurality of diffusion media layers where each fuel cell includes an anode side diffusion media layer at an anode side of the fuel cell and a cathode side diffusion media layer at a cathode side of the fuel cell;
a plurality of bipolar plates positioned between the fuel cells in the stack adjacent to the diffusion media layers, said bipolar plates including anode flow channels facing the anode side diffusion media layer and cathode flow channels facing the cathode side diffusion media layer;
an anode inlet header directing an anode reactant gas flow to the anode flow channels;
an anode outlet header receiving the reactant gas flow from the anode flow channels;
a cathode inlet header directing a cathode reactant gas flow to the cathode flow channels;
a cathode outlet header receiving the cathode reactant gas flow from the cathode flow channels; and
seals provided around the active area of the fuel cells and between the active area and the headers, said seals being formed by folding an edge of the bipolar plate.
11 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A technique for sealing the edges of fuel cells in a fuel cell stack that employs folding over the edge of bipolar plates. For those bipolar plates include both an anode side uni-polar plate and a cathode side uni-polar plate, one or both of the edges of the uni-polar plates can be folded. The folds can be provided to accommodate a tunnel between a flow header and flow channels in the active area, where the anode uni-polar plate is typically folded for the anode flow headers and the cathode uni-polar plate is typically folded for the cathode flow headers.
45 Citations
29 Claims
-
1. A fuel cell stack including a plurality of stacked fuel cells, each fuel cell including an active area, said fuel cell stack comprising:
-
a plurality of membranes where each fuel cell in the stack includes a membrane; a plurality of diffusion media layers where each fuel cell includes an anode side diffusion media layer at an anode side of the fuel cell and a cathode side diffusion media layer at a cathode side of the fuel cell; a plurality of bipolar plates positioned between the fuel cells in the stack adjacent to the diffusion media layers, said bipolar plates including anode flow channels facing the anode side diffusion media layer and cathode flow channels facing the cathode side diffusion media layer; an anode inlet header directing an anode reactant gas flow to the anode flow channels; an anode outlet header receiving the reactant gas flow from the anode flow channels; a cathode inlet header directing a cathode reactant gas flow to the cathode flow channels; a cathode outlet header receiving the cathode reactant gas flow from the cathode flow channels; and seals provided around the active area of the fuel cells and between the active area and the headers, said seals being formed by folding an edge of the bipolar plate. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19)
-
-
20. A bipolar plate for a fuel cell, said bipolar plate comprising:
-
a cathode side uni-polar plate defining cathode flow channels; and an anode side uni-polar plate defining anode flow channels, where cooling fluid flow channels are defined between the cathode side and anode side uni-polar plates, and wherein one or both of an edge of the cathode or anode side bipolar plates are folded over to define a seal at an edge of the fuel cell. - View Dependent Claims (21, 22, 23, 24, 25)
-
- 26. A bipolar plate for a fuel cell, said bipolar plate being a single plate and including anode flow channels on one side of the plate and cathode flow channels on an opposite side of the plate, wherein an edge of the bipolar plate is folded over to define a seal at an edge of the fuel cell.
Specification