Single corrugated fuel cell and cell stack

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12494498-B2
Application number	US-202217937875-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 4, 2022
Priority date	Dec 22, 2020
Publication date	Dec 9, 2025
Grant date	Dec 9, 2025

Abstract

The invention relates to a single corrugated fuel cell and a cell stack. The single cell comprises an anode plate, a cathode plate, and a membrane electrode assembly; the anode plate is of a corrugated structure and a plurality of anode channels and anode ribs are arranged on the anode plate in parallel; the cathode plate is of a corrugated structure engaged with the anode plate and a plurality of cathode channels and cathode ribs are arranged on the cathode plate in parallel; the membrane electrode assembly is arranged between the anode plate and the cathode plate. The single cell presents a corrugated structure in a width direction of the channel. A plurality of single cells are stacked in sequence to form a fuel cell stack. Compared with the prior art, the invention significantly increases the reaction area per unit volume of the fuel cell through the corrugated structural design, thereby improving the power density of the fuel cell. In addition, the present invention has little change to the existing processing and manufacturing technology, and thus has high production feasibility.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A single corrugated fuel cell, comprising:
an anode plate; a cathode plate; and a membrane electrode assembly, wherein the anode plate is of a corrugated structure, having: a plurality of inclined anode channels with different heights of anode channel left side plates and anode channel right side plates; and anode ribs with slopes being arranged on the anode plate in parallel, the cathode plate is of a corrugated structure engaged with the anode plate, having: a plurality of inclined cathode channels with different heights of cathode channel left side plates and cathode channel right side plates; and cathode ribs with slopes being arranged on the cathode plate in parallel, a lower surface of the anode rib is a plane with a slope, an upper surface of the cathode rib is a plane with a slope, and the lower surface of the anode rib and the upper surface of the cathode rib are parallel to each other, the membrane electrode assembly is mounted between the anode plate and the cathode plate, wherein an upper surface of the membrane electrode assembly is engaged with a lower surface of the anode plate, a lower surface of the membrane electrode assembly is engaged with an upper surface of the cathode plate, and the structure of the membrane electrode assembly is jointly determined by the anode plate and the cathode plate, a part of the membrane electrode assemblies mounted between the anode channels and cathode channels are inclined, and a part of the membrane electrode assemblies mounted between the anode ribs and cathode ribs are planes with slopes, the single corrugated fuel cell presents a corrugated structure in the width direction of the anode channel, the membrane electrode assembly presents a corrugated structure in the width direction of the anode channel, and the interface between the anode plate and the membrane electrode assembly, as well as the interface between the cathode plate and the membrane electrode assembly presents a corrugated structure.

2 . The single corrugated fuel cell according to claim 1 ,
wherein the anode channels and the anode ribs are alternately distributed in parallel on the anode plate, the anode channels are respectively connected with an anode gas inlet and an anode gas outlet, and anode cooling channels are arranged at back of the anode ribs and respectively connected with a cooling liquid inlet and a cooling liquid outlet.

3 . The single corrugated fuel cell according to claim 1 ,
wherein the cathode channels and the cathode ribs are alternately distributed in parallel on the cathode plate, the cathode channels are respectively connected with a cathode gas inlet and a cathode gas outlet, and cathode cooling channels are arranged at the back of the cathode ribs and respectively connected with the cooling liquid inlet and the cooling liquid outlet.

4 . The single corrugated fuel cell according to claim 2 ,
wherein a side of a bottom of the anode channel away from the membrane electrode assembly is of a closed planar structure, a side of a top of the anode channel in contact with the membrane electrode assembly is of an open structure, and an angle between an anode channel left side plate and the bottom of the anode channel and an angle between an anode channel right side plate and the bottom of the anode channel are both not less than 90°.

5 . The single corrugated fuel cell according to claim 2 ,
wherein a height difference between the anode channel left side plate and the anode channel right side plate facing each other of adjacent anode channels, a width of the adjacent anode channels, and a width of the adjacent anode ribs are constant or vary according to a set rule in the width direction of the anode channel.

6 . The single corrugated fuel cell according to claim 3 ,
wherein a side of a bottom of the cathode channel away from the membrane electrode assembly is of a closed planar structure, a side of a top of the cathode channel in contact with the membrane electrode assembly is of an open structure, an angle between a cathode channel left side plate and the bottom of the cathode channel and an angle between a cathode channel right side plate and the bottom of the cathode channel are both not less than 90°, and a sum of the heights of the anode channel left side plate and the corresponding cathode channel left side plate in a planar view is equal to a sum of the heights of the anode channel right side plate and the corresponding cathode channel right side plate in the planar view.

7 . The single corrugated fuel cell according to claim 3 , wherein a height difference between the cathode channel left side plate and the cathode channel right plate facing each other of adjacent cathode channels, widths of the adjacent cathode channels, and a width of the cathode rib between the adjacent cathode channels are correspondingly equal to the height difference between the anode channel left side plate and the anode channel right side plate facing each other of adjacent anode channels, widths of the adjacent anode channels, and a width of the anode rib between the adjacent anode channels, respectively.

8 . A stack comprising the single corrugated fuel cell according to claim 1 ,
wherein the stack is formed by stacking a plurality of the single corrugated fuel cells in sequence along a height direction of the single corrugated fuel cell, the anode plates and the cathode plates of adjacent single corrugated fuel cells in the stack are oppositely assembled, and anode cooling channels and cathode cooling channels together form closed-section stack cooling channels, the stack presenting a corrugated structure along a width direction of the anode channel.

9 . The stack according to claim 8 , wherein all the single corrugated fuel cells in the stack share an anode gas inlet, an anode gas outlet, a cathode gas inlet, a cathode gas outlet, a cooling liquid inlet, and a cooling liquid outlet.

10 . The single corrugated fuel cell of claim 1 ,
wherein, when measured in the width direction of the anode channel, a width of the anode channel is the same as a width of a cathode channel that corresponds to the anode channel, and a width of the anode plate is the same as a width of a cathode plate that corresponds to the anode plate.

11 . The single corrugated fuel cell of claim 4 ,
wherein, when measured in the width direction of the anode channel, a width of the anode channel is the same as a width of a cathode channel that corresponds to the anode channel, and a width of the anode plate is the same as a width of a cathode plate that corresponds to the anode plate.

12 . The stack according to claim 8 ,
wherein, when measured in the width direction of the anode channel, a width of the anode channel is the same as a width of a cathode channel that corresponds to the anode channel, and a width of the anode plate is the same as a width of a cathode plate that corresponds to the anode plate.

Assignees

• Univ Shanghai Jiaotong

Inventors

• Qiu Diankai
• Liao Shuxin
• Peng Linfa
• Yi Peiyun
• Lai Xinmin

Classifications

• H01M8/0265

  the reactant or coolant channels having varying cross sections · CPC title

• H01M8/2457

  with both reactants being gaseous or vaporised · CPC title

• H01M8/0267

  having heating or cooling means, e.g. heaters or coolant flow channels · CPC title

• H01M8/0254 Primary

  corrugated or undulated · CPC title

• Y02E60/50

  Fuel cells · CPC title