Fuel cell assembly

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2017222291-A1
Application number	US-201515519106-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 13, 2015
Priority date	Oct 15, 2014
Publication date	Aug 3, 2017
Grant date	—

Abstract

A fuel cell assembly comprising at least two fuel cells, each fuel cell in the fuel cell assembly having an anode and a cathode to provide for electrical interconnections with other fuel cells of the assembly or assembly output terminals wherein the electrical interconnections between a plurality of the fuel cells of the fuel cell assembly are configurable such that said plurality of fuel cells or a subset thereof are connectable without changing the spatial relationship between the fuel cells in at least two of; i) in series with one another; ii) in parallel with one another; or iii) disconnected from the assembly.

First claim

1 . A fuel cell assembly comprising at least two fuel cells, each fuel cell in the fuel cell assembly having an anode and a cathode to provide for electrical interconnections with other fuel cells of the assembly or assembly output terminals wherein the electrical interconnections between a plurality of the fuel cells of the fuel cell assembly are configurable such that said plurality of fuel cells or a subset thereof are connectable without changing the spatial relationship between the fuel cells in at least two of;
i) in series with one another; ii) in parallel with one another; or iii) disconnected from the assembly.

2 . A fuel cell assembly according to claim 1 , in which the interconnections include a plurality of switches to configure the electrical interconnections between the plurality of fuel cells of the assembly.

3 . A fuel cell assembly according to claim 2 , in which the switches comprise transistors.

4 . A fuel cell assembly according to claim 2 , in which the switches comprise
micro-switches.

5 . A fuel cell assembly according to claim 2 , in which the switches are actively reconfigurable such that interconnections between fuel cells can be changed in use.

6 . A fuel cell assembly according to claim 2 , in which the switches form part of a centralised or distributed interconnection controller configured to control the interconnections to provide different output voltages and/or output currents.

7 . A fuel cell assembly according to claim 6 , in which the interconnection controller is configured to actively reconfigure the interconnections between cells during operation of the fuel cell assembly.

8 . A fuel cell assembly according to claim 7 , in which the interconnection controller is configured to receive a measure of the electrical output of a plurality of cells in the assembly and reconfigure interconnections between the cells in response to said measure.

9 . A fuel cell assembly according to claim 6 , in which the fuel cell assembly is connected to a battery to form a hybridised power source and the controller is configured to arrange the interconnections between the fuel cells such that the number of fuel cells in series provides a maximum open circuit voltage of the fuel cell assembly that is configured to be less or equal to the battery's maximum output voltage.

10 . A fuel cell assembly according to claim 6 , in which the fuel cell assembly is connected to a battery to form a hybridised power source and the controller is configured to arrange the interconnections between the fuel cells such that the number of fuel cells in parallel provides a current output at the full power of the fuel cell assembly, less than or equal to a current capable of meeting the C rate of the battery when the battery is operating at its operational lower voltage limit.

11 . A fuel cell assembly according to claim 10 , in which the controller is configured to actively arrange the interconnections between the fuel cells to control the area of a contiguous group of cells arranged in parallel to provide a current output at the full power of the fuel cell assembly, less than or equal to a current capable of meeting the C rate of the battery when the battery is operating at its operational lower voltage limit.

Assignees

• Intelligent Energy Ltd

Inventors

• Elliott Zachary
• Grange Nathan

Classifications

• H02J2101/30

  Fuel cells · CPC title

• H01M16/003

  of fuel cells with other electrochemical devices, e.g. capacitors, electrolysers · CPC title

• H02J7/00

  Circuit arrangements for charging or discharging batteries or for supplying loads from batteries · CPC title

• H02J1/108

  having arrangements for blocking reverse current flow, e.g. using diodes (H02J1/12 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H01M8/04559

  of fuel cell stacks · CPC title