CN107994240B - Fuel cell - Google Patents

Fuel cell Download PDF

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Publication number
CN107994240B
CN107994240B CN201711405348.9A CN201711405348A CN107994240B CN 107994240 B CN107994240 B CN 107994240B CN 201711405348 A CN201711405348 A CN 201711405348A CN 107994240 B CN107994240 B CN 107994240B
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heat
membrane electrode
fuel cell
electrode assembly
conduction piece
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CN107994240A (en
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向前
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Beijing Jinyuan Innovation Technology Co ltd
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Beijing Jinyuan Innovation Technology Co ltd
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    • HELECTRICITY
    • H01ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01MPROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSION OF CHEMICAL ENERGY INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY
    • H01M8/00Fuel cells; Manufacture thereof
    • H01M8/24Grouping of fuel cells, e.g. stacking of fuel cells
    • H01M8/2465Details of groupings of fuel cells
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H01ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01MPROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSION OF CHEMICAL ENERGY INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY
    • H01M8/00Fuel cells; Manufacture thereof
    • H01M8/02Details
    • H01M8/0202Collectors; Separators, e.g. bipolar separators; Interconnectors
    • H01M8/0267Collectors; Separators, e.g. bipolar separators; Interconnectors having heating or cooling means, e.g. heaters or coolant flow channels
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H01ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01MPROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSION OF CHEMICAL ENERGY INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY
    • H01M8/00Fuel cells; Manufacture thereof
    • H01M8/04Auxiliary arrangements, e.g. for control of pressure or for circulation of fluids
    • H01M8/04007Auxiliary arrangements, e.g. for control of pressure or for circulation of fluids related to heat exchange
    • H01M8/04067Heat exchange or temperature measuring elements, thermal insulation, e.g. heat pipes, heat pumps, fins
    • H01M8/04074Heat exchange unit structures specially adapted for fuel cell
    • YGENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y02TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Y02EREDUCTION OF GREENHOUSE GAS [GHG] EMISSIONS, RELATED TO ENERGY GENERATION, TRANSMISSION OR DISTRIBUTION
    • Y02E60/00Enabling technologies; Technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation
    • Y02E60/30Hydrogen technology
    • Y02E60/50Fuel cells

Abstract

The fuel cell provided by the invention comprises: the electric pile comprises a membrane electrode assembly and a bipolar plate, wherein the upper surface and the lower surface of the membrane electrode assembly are provided with power generation working surfaces, and the membrane electrode assembly and the bipolar plate are arranged in a stacking way along the direction perpendicular to the power generation working surfaces; a heat source for providing heat; and a heat conduction assembly conducting heat to the membrane electrode assembly, the heat conduction assembly comprising: the first heat conduction piece is arranged on at least one side of the electric pile along the direction vertical to the power generation working surface; the second heat conduction piece is arranged between the first heat conduction piece and the bipolar plate and is used for transferring heat with the first heat conduction piece in a conduction mode; and the third heat conducting piece is arranged between the laminated membrane electrode assemblies and the bipolar plates, is in heat transfer with the second heat conducting piece in a conduction mode and is in contact with the second heat conducting piece, and is in heat transfer with the membrane electrode assemblies in a conduction mode and is in contact with the power generation working surface. The fuel cell has the advantages of short preheating, fast heat dissipation, high temperature consistency, simple structure and low cost.

Description

Fuel cell
Technical Field
The present invention relates to a fuel cell, and more particularly, to a proton exchange membrane fuel cell with a heat source and a heat conducting member.
Background
The proton exchange membrane fuel cell is used as a chemical generator, and utilizes the reverse reaction principle of electrolyzed water to enable hydrogen (anode) and oxygen (cathode) to generate electric energy through electrochemical reaction under the action of a catalyst.
Electrochemical reactions of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell occur in a pile system (hereinafter referred to as "pile"), which is a power generation system of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell, including membrane electrode assemblies and bipolar plates arranged in a stacked manner. The upper surface and the lower surface of each membrane electrode assembly are provided with power generation working surfaces. The upper and lower surfaces of each bipolar plate are provided with flow fields which are parallel to the power generation working surface of the membrane electrode assembly and are used for allowing the gas required by the cathode and the anode to pass through. Each membrane electrode assembly and the corresponding surfaces of the bipolar plates on the upper side and the lower side of the membrane electrode assembly form a power generation unit.
Because the membrane electrode assembly can effectively generate electricity only in a limited working temperature (operating temperature) range, the membrane electrode assembly has very severe temperature requirements, and is characterized in the following two aspects:
first, when the temperature of the membrane electrode assembly is excessively high, irreversible damage may be caused to the membrane electrode assembly. When the temperature of the membrane electrode assembly is too low, the electrochemical reaction speed in the membrane electrode assembly is too slow, so that the membrane electrode assembly cannot effectively work to generate electricity, and a user cannot use the membrane electrode assembly. Therefore, before use, the device needs to be heated to enable the device to be heated up and preheated to reach the lower limit of the working temperature as soon as possible so as to reduce waiting time of users. According to the related research of Juhl Andreasen et al, the heating and preheating time required by the electric pile adopting an electric heating mode to reach the lower limit of the working temperature is usually about 30-60 minutes, and the long waiting time can seriously influence the use feeling of a user and limit the application range of the fuel cell.
In addition, the uniformity of the operating temperature of the membrane electrode assembly has a very important influence on the power generation capacity of the membrane electrode assembly. The working temperatures of different parts of the same membrane electrode assembly should be as uniform as possible, and the working temperatures of the membrane electrode assemblies of different layers should be as uniform as possible. Only in this way, the power generation capability of the membrane electrode assembly can be better exerted.
In the prior art, the component for providing the heat required by the working temperature for the membrane electrode assembly is a bipolar plate, and the bipolar plate is required to not only receive external heat and rapidly and efficiently transfer the heat to the membrane electrode assembly, but also bear the requirements on performances of the membrane electrode assembly, such as conductivity, mechanical strength, corrosion resistance, gas barrier property, quality, cost and the like. Because the parts for providing heat for the membrane electrode assembly bear excessive functions and are restricted by various conditions, the requirements of the membrane electrode assembly are difficult to meet, the fuel cell stack in the prior art is excessively long in starting time, poor in power generation capacity and high in manufacturing cost, the use feeling of a user is seriously influenced, the existence value of a fuel cell is reduced, and the technical bottleneck for influencing the development of the fuel cell is formed.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to provide a fuel cell with short preheating and heating time, high heat dissipation speed, high temperature consistency, simple structure, low cost and wide application range.
In one aspect, the present invention provides a fuel cell comprising: a stack including at least one membrane electrode assembly and at least one bipolar plate, wherein the upper surface and the lower surface of each membrane electrode assembly are provided with power generation working surfaces, and the at least one membrane electrode assembly and the at least one bipolar plate are arranged in a stacked arrangement along a direction perpendicular to the power generation working surfaces; a heat source for providing heat; and a thermally conductive assembly for conducting heat from the heat source to the at least one membrane electrode assembly, wherein the thermally conductive assembly comprises: the first heat conduction piece is arranged on at least one side of the electric pile along the direction perpendicular to the power generation working surface; the second heat conduction piece is arranged between the first heat conduction piece and the at least one bipolar plate, and heat is transferred between the second heat conduction piece and the first heat conduction piece in a conduction mode; and the third heat conducting piece is arranged between the membrane electrode assemblies and the bipolar plates which are arranged in a stacked manner, and is in heat transfer with the second heat conducting piece in a conduction manner and is in contact with the second heat conducting piece, and the third heat conducting piece is in heat transfer with the membrane electrode assemblies in a conduction manner and is in contact with a power generation working surface of the membrane electrode assemblies.
In another aspect, the present invention also provides a fuel cell, including: the electric pile comprises a membrane electrode assembly and a pair of unipolar plates, wherein the upper surface and the lower surface of the membrane electrode assembly are respectively provided with a power generation working surface, and the pair of unipolar plates are respectively arranged on the upper side and the lower side of the power generation working surface along the direction perpendicular to the power generation working surface; a heat source for providing heat and a thermally conductive assembly for conducting heat from the heat source to the membrane electrode assembly, wherein the thermally conductive assembly comprises: the first heat conduction piece is arranged on at least one side of the electric pile along the direction perpendicular to the power generation working surface; the second heat conduction piece is arranged between the first heat conduction piece and the monopole plate, and heat is transferred between the second heat conduction piece and the first heat conduction piece in a conduction mode; and the third heat conduction piece is arranged between the membrane electrode assembly and the monopole plate, the third heat conduction piece and the second heat conduction piece transfer heat in a conduction mode and are in contact with the second heat conduction piece, and the third heat conduction piece and the membrane electrode assembly transfer heat in a conduction mode and are in contact with a power generation working surface of the membrane electrode assembly.
The fuel cell of the invention comprises a galvanic pile, a heat source for supplying heat to the galvanic pile and a heat conducting component for conducting heat. The heat conducting components consisting of the first, second and third heat conducting pieces form an external heat path independent of the bipolar plate, and provide heat supply, heat dissipation and soaking functions for the membrane electrode assembly. The second and third heat conducting members form an external circuit independent of the bipolar plate, and provide collector and electric conduction functions for the membrane electrode assembly. The arrangement mode shares the functions of the bipolar plate, enlarges the material selection range of the bipolar plate, and greatly reduces the cost of the bipolar plate. The method not only can effectively solve the problem of overlong waiting time of a user caused by overlong temperature rising and preheating time of the electric pile, improve the consistency of the temperature of the electric pile, but also can reduce the manufacturing cost and the processing difficulty of the fuel cell and enlarge the application range of the fuel cell.
The technical scheme of the present invention and advantages thereof will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and detailed description.
Drawings
Fig. 1 is an exploded view of a fuel cell according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 2 is a front view of the fuel cell of fig. 1.
Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the fuel cell of fig. 1 taken along line A-A.
Fig. 4 is an exploded view of a fuel cell according to another embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 5 is a front view of the fuel cell of fig. 4.
Fig. 6 is a cross-sectional view of the fuel cell of fig. 4 taken along line a '-a'.
Fig. 7 is an exploded view of a fuel cell according to still another embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 8 is a front view of the fuel cell in fig. 7.
Fig. 9 is a cross-sectional view of the fuel cell of fig. 7 taken along line a "-a".
Detailed Description
Various aspects of the invention are described in detail below with reference to the drawings and detailed description. It should be noted that, the drawings in the present invention are only for illustrating the specific embodiments of the present invention, and the specific structure, the relative positions, the materials, etc. of each component of the fuel cell of the present invention are not limited, and the components in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, and emphasis is placed on illustrating the concept of the present invention; the present invention is not limited to the specific embodiments described above.
Well-known structures or materials are not described in detail in connection with the various embodiments of the invention. Furthermore, the described features, structures, or characteristics of the invention may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more embodiments. Furthermore, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that the various embodiments described below are for illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the components of the embodiments described herein and shown in the drawings may be arranged and designed in a wide variety of different configurations or proportions.
An embodiment of the present invention provides a fuel cell including: a stack including at least one membrane electrode assembly and at least one bipolar plate, wherein the upper surface and the lower surface of each membrane electrode assembly are provided with power generation working surfaces, and the at least one membrane electrode assembly and the at least one bipolar plate are arranged in a stacked arrangement along a direction perpendicular to the power generation working surfaces; a heat source for providing heat; and a thermally conductive assembly for conducting heat from the heat source to the at least one membrane electrode assembly, wherein the thermally conductive assembly comprises: the first heat conducting piece is arranged on at least one side of the electric pile along the direction perpendicular to the power generation working face, the second heat conducting piece is arranged between the first heat conducting piece and the at least one bipolar plate and is used for transferring heat through a conduction mode, the third heat conducting piece is arranged between the membrane electrode assemblies and the bipolar plates which are arranged in a stacked mode, the third heat conducting piece is used for transferring heat through a conduction mode and is in contact with the second heat conducting piece, and the third heat conducting piece is used for transferring heat through a conduction mode and is in contact with the power generation working face of the membrane electrode assemblies.
Embodiments of the present invention also provide a fuel cell including: the electric pile comprises a membrane electrode assembly and a pair of unipolar plates, wherein the upper surface and the lower surface of the membrane electrode assembly are respectively provided with a power generation working surface, and the pair of unipolar plates are respectively arranged on the upper side and the lower side of the power generation working surface of the membrane electrode assembly and are arranged in a stacked mode along the direction perpendicular to the power generation working surface. A heat source for providing heat and a thermally conductive assembly for conducting heat from the heat source to the membrane electrode assembly, wherein the thermally conductive assembly comprises: the first heat conduction piece is arranged on at least one side of the electric pile along the direction perpendicular to the power generation working face, the second heat conduction piece is arranged between the first heat conduction piece and the monopole plate and is used for transferring heat through a conduction mode, the third heat conduction piece is arranged between the membrane electrode assembly and the monopole plate and is used for transferring heat through a conduction mode and is in contact with the second heat conduction piece, and the third heat conduction piece is used for transferring heat through a conduction mode and is in contact with the power generation working face of the membrane electrode assembly.
The good heat conduction capability of the first heat conduction piece not only can ensure the quick conduction of heat and play a role in heat conduction, but also can ensure the temperature consistency among the second heat conduction pieces at different positions and play a role in heat homogenizing body. In addition, the exposed part of the first heat conduction piece can provide more heat dissipation area for heat dissipation, so that a heat dissipation device is conveniently arranged or waste heat is further utilized. The design of the built-in working medium avoids the problems of leakage of the working medium, peculiar smell and the like. The external solid shell ensures that heat transfer can be carried out between the first heat conduction piece and the second heat conduction piece in a conduction mode, and ensures the heat transfer efficiency. The first heat conduction piece integrates heat conduction, heat dissipation and soaking, and uses one component to complete a plurality of functions, so that the design is simplified. The second heat conducting piece is arranged to effectively increase the contact area between the second heat conducting piece and the first heat conducting piece and the third heat conducting piece, improve the heat conducting capacity, and simultaneously reduce the volume and the mass increase caused by the increase of the surface area to the greatest extent. The design arranged outside the power generation working face can avoid carrying out anti-corrosion treatment on the power generation working face, simplifies the production process and reduces the production cost. The third heat conducting piece is made of a carbon material with light weight, high heat conduction, high electric conduction, corrosion resistance and good sealing effect, and can efficiently supply heat, dissipate heat, collect electricity and conduct electricity for the power generation working face of the membrane electrode assembly only by simple processing.
In some embodiments, the first heat conductive member may be located at one side, or two sides, or three sides, or four sides of the stack. The first heat conductive member has a heat conductivity of not less than 10W/mK. The first heat conducting piece can be composed of a solid shell and a fluid working medium sealed in the solid shell, so that heat conductivity is increased, uniform heat conduction is realized, and the problems of peculiar smell of the working medium and the like can be solved. For example, the solid housing may be made of a metal and a nonmetal having a thermal conductivity of not less than 10W/mK, such as copper, iron, aluminum, nickel, titanium, aluminum nitride, aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, carbon, or the like; the fluid working medium may consist of a liquid or a gas. In some embodiments, the first thermally conductive member may be a heat pipe, such as a phase-change heat pipe and a non-phase-change heat pipe, such as a phase-change heat pipe having a thermal conductivity greater than 400W/mK, or a non-phase-change heat pipe having a thermal conductivity greater than 1000W/mK, or even greater than 4000W/mK. The first heat conductive member may also be made of metal or nonmetal, such as gold, silver, copper, iron, aluminum, nickel, or titanium, such as aluminum nitride, aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, and carbon.
In some embodiments, the second heat conducting member may or may not contact the bipolar plate (e.g., may be connected to two sides of the bipolar plate by hooks), and the second heat conducting member transfers heat to the first heat conducting member and the third heat conducting member by conduction, which is effective to transfer the heat transferred from the first heat conducting member to the third heat conducting member, so as to increase the contact area between the second heat conducting member and the third heat conducting member as much as possible with the least possible mass. The number of second heat conductive members may correspond to the number of first heat conductive members: when the first heat conducting member is arranged on one side of the electric pile, the second heat conducting member can be arranged on one side of the bipolar plate; when the first heat conducting members are disposed only on two sides of the stack, the second heat conducting members may also be disposed on two sides of the bipolar plate. The second heat conductive member has a heat conductivity of not less than 120W/mK and may be made of, for example, a metal or a nonmetal such as gold, silver, copper, aluminum nitride, carbon, or the like.
The third heat conducting piece is closely contacted with the power generation working face of the membrane electrode assembly and plays a role in transferring heat to the membrane electrode assembly. The bipolar plate does not need to bear the functions of strength, flow field and the like of the bipolar plate, and only needs to consider the performances of heat conduction, electric conduction, corrosion resistance and gas insulation of the material. The third heat conductive member may be made of various materials having a thermal conductivity of not less than 120W/mK. Since the third heat conductive member is required to have an electric conduction function, the resistivity of the material from which the third heat conductive member is made should be less than 1x10 -4 Omega.m. The third heat conductive member may be made of an electrically conductive nonmetallic material including, but not limited to: and (3) carbon.
The first, second and third heat conducting pieces are connected in a fastening mode, a high-efficiency solid conduction heat transfer mode is utilized, moving parts are not adopted, the number of parts is small, the structure is simple, the construction is easy, the system is stable and durable, and the material cost is low.
When the first heat conducting member (or the shell material) is electrically conductive, an insulating member may be further disposed between the first heat conducting member and the second heat conducting member to avoid a short circuit phenomenon, and at this time, the first heat conducting member is in contact with the second heat conducting member through the insulating member. The insulating member is made of light, thin, high-temperature resistant and insulating material with resistivity not less than 1x10 10 The insulator may be made of ceramic material selected from aluminum nitride, aluminum oxide, or plastic material selected from nylon PA, polyetheretherketone PEEK, polyimide PI, polyphenylene sulfide PPS, polytetrafluoroethylene PTFE, and liquid crystal polymer LCP, etc.
In an alternative embodiment, the design of the insulating member may be omitted when the first heat conducting member is not electrically conductive (e.g. it is an insulating material such as ceramic or its solid housing is made of an insulating material such as ceramic) or when the second heat conducting member is not electrically conductive (e.g. the second heat conducting member is made of an insulating material such as ceramic, the external circuit conducting function is achieved by an additional electrically conductive member).
The design of the heat conduction component independent of the bipolar plate is adopted, so that the functions of the bipolar plate are greatly simplified, the heat conduction capability is not needed, and only the performances of strength, air insulation, corrosion resistance and the like are needed, so that the bipolar plate can be made of cheap, light, corrosion-resistant and easily-processed materials, the material cost and the processing cost of the bipolar plate can be greatly reduced, the service life of the bipolar plate is prolonged, and the application range of a fuel cell is enlarged.
Meanwhile, because the design of the heat conduction component independent of the bipolar plate is adopted, the mode that the bipolar plate supplies heat for the membrane electrode component in the prior art is changed, and the relative positions of the bipolar plate and the membrane electrode component are also changed. In the present invention, the bipolar plate and the membrane electrode assembly are separated by the third heat conductive member. When heat is transferred from the third heat conducting member, a phenomenon of competing for heat is generated between the bipolar plate and the membrane electrode assembly. Because the membrane electrode assembly is made of acidic substances and high polymer materials, the heat conductivity is very low, and if the material of the bipolar plate has the heat conductivity of more than 10W/mK as required by the United states department of energy, the heat transmitted by the third heat conduction piece is obtained before the membrane electrode assembly, so that the preheating starting time of the membrane electrode assembly is delayed. Thus, in the present invention, the bipolar/unipolar plates are instead made of a material having a very low thermal conductivity.
According to the embodiment of the invention, the lower the thermal conductivity of the polymer material used for manufacturing the bipolar plate/monopolar plate is, the better the thermal conductivity is, so that the heat introduced by the third heat conducting member is transferred to the membrane electrode assembly as much as possible. However, even so, over time, bipolar plates will absorb heat and warm up, and their temperature will eventually approach that of the membrane modules. But will release heat whenever the membrane electrode assembly begins to operate. The preheating temperature rise of the bipolar plate to the membrane electrode assembly is not affected by the heat. Moreover, the bipolar plate has low heat conductivity and low heat absorption, and an atmosphere effect can be formed in each single power generation unit formed by the membrane electrode assembly, the third heat conduction piece, the second heat conduction piece and the bipolar plate, so that the requirement of the membrane electrode assembly on the stability of the working temperature is greatly met. In some embodiments, the bipolar plate has a thermal conductivity of no more than 10W/mK to transfer heat as much as possibleMembrane electrode assembly to heat the membrane electrode assembly, resistivity greater than 1 x 10 -4 Omega.m. The bipolar/unipolar plates can be made of ceramic or plastic, for example nylon PA, polyetheretherketone PEEK, polyimide PI, polyphenylene sulfide PPS, polytetrafluoroethylene PTFE and liquid crystal polymer LCP, with thermal conductivity not greater than 10W/m-K, corrosion resistance less than 1 μa/cm 2 Hydrogen permeability of less than 2.10 -6 cm 3 /cm 2 s, the heat distortion temperature is not lower than 260 ℃ under the pressure of 0.45Mp, and the resistivity is more than 1 multiplied by 10 -4 Ω·m。
[ example 1 ]
Fig. 1 is an exploded view of a fuel cell according to an embodiment of the present invention, fig. 2 is a front view of the fuel cell of fig. 1, and fig. 3 is a sectional view of the fuel cell of fig. 1 taken along line A-A.
As shown in fig. 1 to 3, the fuel cell of the present invention includes a stack for generating electricity, a heat conduction assembly for conducting heat from a heat source to the stack, and a heat source for providing heat.
The stack comprises 40 membrane electrode assemblies 1, 38 bipolar plates 2 and 2 monopolar plates 3 respectively arranged at the top and bottom of the stack, and the heat conducting assemblies comprise 2 first heat conducting members 4, 80 second heat conducting members 5 and 80 third heat conducting members 6 (only the 1 st membrane electrode assembly, the 20 th membrane electrode assembly, the 40 th membrane electrode assembly and the heat conducting members and bipolar plates/monopolar plates at the two sides thereof are shown in the figure, and the rest of the repeated parts are omitted and are merely illustrative). The first heat conducting piece and the second heat conducting piece transfer heat through a conduction mode, the second heat conducting piece and the third heat conducting piece transfer heat through a conduction mode, the third heat conducting piece and the membrane electrode assembly transfer heat through a conduction mode, and all parts transfer heat through a conduction mode.
The membrane electrode assembly 1 is a proton exchange membrane electrode assembly (for example, celtec-P-1000MEA type proton exchange membrane electrode assembly purchased from ADVEDT, U.S.A.), and as shown in FIG. 1, has a hexahedral structure in which power generation working surfaces 11 are disposed on both surfaces having the largest area (i.e., upper and lower surfaces in FIG. 1), and the power generation working surfaces have an area of about 45cm 2
The bipolar plate is sheet-shaped, and the upper surface and the lower surface of the bipolar plate are provided with flow fields 21 which are serpentine. The surface of the unipolar plate corresponding to the membrane electrode assembly is also provided with a flow field, namely, the lower surface of the unipolar plate positioned at the top of the electric pile is provided with a flow field 31, and the upper surface of the unipolar plate positioned at the bottom of the electric pile is provided with a flow field 31 which is in a serpentine shape. The bipolar plate and the monopolar plate are both made of polyphenylene sulfide PPS, the heat conductivity is 2w/mk, and the corrosion resistance is 0.85 mu A/cm 2 Hydrogen permeability 1.23 -6 cm 3 /cm 2 s, heat distortion temperature 270 ℃ under 1.82Mp pressure, resistivity 3 x 10 16 Ω·m。
The membrane electrode assembly 1 and the bipolar plate 2 are arranged in a stacked manner in a direction perpendicular to the power generation working face (e.g., Y direction in fig. 1), and the power generation working face of the membrane electrode assembly and the flow field of the bipolar plate/unipolar plate correspond to each other.
As shown in fig. 1, the first heat conductive members 4 are disposed on both sides of the stack in a direction perpendicular to the power generation working surface 11 (e.g., Y direction in fig. 1) in a long plate shape to rapidly and uniformly transfer heat generated from the heat source. The non-phase-change heat pipe with heat conductivity greater than 1000W/mK consists of solid casing and fluid medium sealed inside the solid casing.
The second heat conducting member 5 is disposed between the bipolar plate 2 and the first heat conducting member 4, on both sides of the bipolar plate, i.e., on both sides of the bipolar plate in the direction of the power generation working face 11 (e.g., X direction in fig. 1), and contacts the first heat conducting member 4 via the insulating member 8 for transferring heat transferred from the first heat conducting member to the third heat conducting member. The second heat conducting members are connected to both sides of the bipolar plate through hooks, and may or may not be in contact with the bipolar plate (in this embodiment, the second heat conducting members are in contact with the bipolar plate), and may have the same thickness as the bipolar plate, so as to facilitate stacking of the respective components in the electric stack. The second heat conducting piece is located far away from the power generation working face of the membrane electrode assembly, so that corrosion of acidic substances can be effectively avoided, the corrosion resistance requirement of materials is reduced, and the cost of a corrosion resistance process is saved. The second heat conducting piece is made of aluminum, the heat conductivity of the aluminum is 200W/m.K, the heat transfer is facilitated, the market price is low, the processing technology is simple, and the cost control is facilitated.
At this time, since the solid housing of the first heat conductive member is made of steel, the second heat conductive member is made of aluminum, and an insulating member 8 is further provided between the second heat conductive member and the first heat conductive member to avoid a short circuit phenomenon. As shown in fig. 1, the insulating member may be in a sheet shape, and is attached to a portion of the first heat conducting member, where the first heat conducting member contacts with the second heat conducting member (i.e., located at two sides of the galvanic pile, and attached to the first heat conducting member to avoid a short circuit caused by direct contact between the first heat conducting member and the second heat conducting member), and the insulating member is made of high-temperature resistant high-molecular polymer polyimide PI, which is a thin film with a thickness of 0.15 mm.
The third heat conducting member 6 is disposed between the adjacent membrane electrode assembly 1 and bipolar plate 2, i.e., on both upper and lower sides of the membrane electrode assembly, in contact with the power generation working face 11 of the membrane electrode assembly, and in contact with the second heat conducting member 5. The third heat conducting member is sandwiched between the upper and lower sides of the membrane electrode assembly by the stacked arrangement of the membrane electrode assembly and the bipolar plate, and is in close contact with the second heat conducting member to conduct heat, and may or may not be in contact with the first heat conducting member (in this embodiment, there is a gap between the third heat conducting member and the first heat conducting member) (as shown in fig. 2). The third heat conducting member may further be provided with perforations 61 for gas to enter, corresponding to the power generation working face of the membrane electrode assembly and the flow field of the bipolar plate, and the perforations should be distributed uniformly as much as possible, so as to meet the electrochemical reaction requirement of the gas entering the surface of the membrane electrode assembly. The third heat conductive member was corrosion-resistant high heat conductive graphite (GRAF SS 400.94T in U.S.) having a heat conductivity of 400W/mK. Although graphite has a relatively low hardness, it has a high thermal conductivity, thereby excellently satisfying the demand for heat supply to the membrane electrode assembly, and has a density of 1.5g/cm 3 Specific heat of 510J/Kg. Deg.C, and resistivity of less than 1x10 -6 Omega.m, better than 1x10 required by the United states department of energy -4 The standard of omega.m can well bear the task of conducting heat and electricity for the membrane electrode assembly.
In this way, heat starts from a heat source and reaches the membrane electrode assembly through the first heat conducting piece (and the insulating piece), the second heat conducting piece and the third heat conducting piece, all solid connection is adopted between the first heat conducting piece 4 and the second heat conducting piece 5, between the second heat conducting piece 5 and the third heat conducting piece 6 and between the third heat conducting piece 6 and the membrane electrode assembly 1 to be in close contact, the heat is transferred by utilizing a conduction mode, the heat transfer efficiency is high, and the fuel cell has a simple and reliable structure, low cost and low processing difficulty, and is very beneficial to mass production.
A heat source 7 is arranged below the first heat conducting member to sufficiently release heat by means of burning fuel, for example, a methanol burner is used to burn pure methanol to provide heat to the fuel cell, alternatively the heat source may provide heat in other forms.
The temperature was measured for the fuel cell according to the above-described embodiment.
The 1 st membrane electrode assembly, the 20 th membrane electrode assembly and the 40 th membrane electrode assembly from top to bottom are provided with temperature measuring points, as shown in figure 1, the center line position of the power generation working surface of each membrane electrode assembly is provided with 3 temperature measuring points (all on the power generation working surface positioned on the upper surface), the temperature measuring points on the membrane electrode assembly (the 1 st membrane electrode assembly) far away from a heat source are numbered as a, b and c, the temperature measuring points on the membrane electrode assembly (the 20 th membrane electrode assembly) positioned in the middle of a galvanic pile are numbered as d, e and f, and the temperature measuring points on the membrane electrode assembly (the 40 th membrane electrode assembly) close to the heat source are numbered as g, h and i. Data are collected every 60 seconds, the temperature rise condition of each group of temperature measuring points is counted, and after more than 10 experiments are carried out, the average value is taken as a measuring result. The measured temperature measurement results for each 60 seconds from the ambient temperature (20 ℃) are shown in Table 1.
TABLE 1
Time(s) Point a Point b Point c Point d Point e Point f Point g Point h Point i
0 19.6 20.8 20.3 20.6 20.4 19.8 19.9 20.1 20.5
60 23.6 22.2 23.1 20.8 21.7 21.5 30.9 29.7 30.7
120 28.1 25.2 27.9 34.3 28.4 35.1 48.8 45.7 49.4
180 35.2 30.9 36.8 42.7 40.2 31.6 66.9 61.4 67.2
240 49.6 44.2 50.5 59.4 57.2 60.1 85.7 79.1 84.6
300 77.4 71.9 78.2 81.5 77.4 83.4 102.4 99.1 101.3
360 103.3 97.6 104.2 101.2 99.1 101.7 120.2 117.1 121.1
420 130.5 128.1 131.6 125.9 121.4 126.3 139.5 136.1 141.8
480 154.7 152.1 155.8 152.1 149.6 152.1 170.1 167.3 169.3
540 169.5 168.3 168.9 165.4 164.8 166.2 175.6 173.3 176.9
In this embodiment, the proton exchange membrane electrode assembly used in the fuel cell has an operating temperature of 120 ℃ to 180 ℃, preferably an operating temperature of 160 ℃, and the membrane electrode assembly is easily damaged when the operating temperature exceeds 200 ℃, and is difficult to generate electricity effectively when the operating temperature is lower than 120 ℃. In the prior art, the heating and preheating of the fuel cell generally needs 30-60 minutes, the heating is uneven, and the overall power generation capacity of the electric pile is poor.
As can be seen from table 1, the membrane electrode assembly of the present invention can reach an effective operating temperature 420 seconds after heating is started, and the time for heating up and preheating can be greatly shortened compared with the prior art. Meanwhile, the temperature difference on the same membrane electrode assembly is smaller, and the temperature difference between the membrane electrode assemblies at different positions in the electric pile is smaller. After the membrane electrode assembly close to the heat source reaches the optimal working temperature range, the temperature of the membrane electrode assemblies positioned at the middle part and the upper part can also reach the optimal working temperature quickly, so that the membrane electrode assemblies close to the heat source cannot be overhigh in temperature, the membrane electrode assemblies positioned at the middle part and the upper part cannot be overlow in temperature, excellent temperature consistency is reflected, and powerful guarantee is provided for improving the power generation capacity of a galvanic pile.
From this, the fuel cell of the present embodiment achieves excellent system thermal performance at low manufacturing cost, and achieves the intended effect.
[ example 2 ]
Fig. 4 is an exploded view of a fuel cell according to another embodiment of the present invention, fig. 5 is a front view of the fuel cell of fig. 4, and fig. 6 is a sectional view of the fuel cell taken along line a '-a'.
As shown in fig. 4 to 6, the fuel cell of the present invention includes a stack for generating electricity, a heat conduction assembly for conducting heat from a heat source to the stack, and a heat source for providing heat.
The stack comprises 2 membrane electrode assemblies 1', 1 bipolar plates 2' and 2 unipolar plates 3 'respectively arranged at the top and the bottom of the stack, and the heat conducting assembly comprises 2 first heat conducting pieces 4', 6 second heat conducting pieces 5 'and 4 third heat conducting pieces 6'. The first heat conducting piece and the second heat conducting piece transfer heat through a conduction mode, the second heat conducting piece and the third heat conducting piece transfer heat through a conduction mode, the third heat conducting piece and the membrane electrode assembly transfer heat through a conduction mode, and all parts transfer heat through a conduction mode.
The membrane electrode assembly 1 'is a proton exchange membrane electrode assembly (for example, a Celtec-P-1000MEA type proton exchange membrane electrode assembly purchased from ADVEDT corporation of America), which is a hexahedral structure as shown in FIG. 4, and the power generation working surfaces (i.e., power generation working surfaces 11') are disposed on both surfaces having the largest area (i.e., upper and lower surfaces in FIG. 4), and the area of the power generation working surfaces is about 45cm 2
The bipolar plate is sheet-shaped, and the upper surface and the lower surface of the bipolar plate are provided with flow fields 21', which are serpentine-shaped. The unipolar plate is sheet-shaped, the surface of the unipolar plate opposite to the membrane electrode assembly is provided with a flow field, namely, the lower surface of the unipolar plate positioned at the top of the galvanic pile is provided with a flow field 31', and the upper surface of the unipolar plate positioned at the bottom of the galvanic pile is provided with a flow field 31', and the flow fields are all in a serpentine shape. The bipolar plate and the monopolar plate are both made of polyphenylene sulfide PPS, the heat conductivity is 2w/mk, and the corrosion resistance is 0.85 mu A/cm 2 Hydrogen permeability 1.23 -6 cm 3 /cm 2 s, heat distortion temperature 270 ℃ under 1.82Mp pressure, resistivity 3 x 10 16 Omega.m pieces.
The membrane electrode assembly 1 'and the bipolar plate 2' are arranged in a stacked manner in a direction perpendicular to the power generation working face (e.g., Y direction in fig. 4), and the power generation working face of the membrane electrode assembly and the flow field of the bipolar plate/unipolar plate correspond to each other.
As shown in fig. 4, the first heat conductive members 4 'are provided on both sides of the stack in a direction perpendicular to the power generation working surface 11' (e.g., Y direction in fig. 4) in a long plate shape to rapidly and uniformly transfer heat generated from the heat source. The copper sheet has a thermal conductivity of 377W/mK.
The second heat conducting members 5' are disposed between the bipolar plate 2' and the first heat conducting member 4', and between the unipolar plate 3' and the first heat conducting member 4', that is, they are disposed on both sides of the bipolar plate/unipolar plate in the direction of the power generation working face 11' (X direction in fig. 4), and are in contact with the first heat conducting member through the insulating member 8', for transferring the heat transferred from the first heat conducting member to the third heat conducting member. The second heat conducting members are connected to two sides of the bipolar plate/monopolar plate through hooks, and can be in contact with the bipolar plate/monopolar plate or not (in the embodiment, the second heat conducting members are in contact with the bipolar plate/monopolar plate), and the thickness of the second heat conducting members can be the same as that of the bipolar plate/monopolar plate so as to facilitate stacking of various components in the electric pile. The second heat conducting piece is located far away from the power generation working face of the membrane electrode assembly, so that corrosion of acidic substances can be effectively avoided, the corrosion resistance requirement of materials is reduced, and the cost of a corrosion resistance process is saved. The second heat conducting piece is made of copper, has the heat conductivity of 377W/m.K, is favorable for heat transfer, has low market price, simple processing technology and is favorable for controlling cost.
At this time, since the first heat conductive member is a copper sheet, the second heat conductive member is made of copper, and an insulating member 8' is further provided between the first heat conductive member and the second heat conductive member to avoid a short circuit phenomenon. As shown in fig. 4, the insulating member may be in a sheet shape, and is attached to a portion of the first heat conducting member, where the first heat conducting member contacts with the second heat conducting member (i.e., located at two sides of the galvanic pile, and attached to the first heat conducting member to avoid a short circuit caused by direct contact between the first heat conducting member and the second heat conducting member), and the insulating member is made of high-temperature resistant high-molecular polymer polyimide PI, which is a thin film with a thickness of 0.15 mm.
The third heat conductive member 6' is disposed between the adjacent membrane electrode assembly 1' and the bipolar plate 2', and adjacentAnd the membrane electrode assembly 1 'and the monopolar plate 3' are positioned on the upper side and the lower side of the membrane electrode assembly, are contacted with the power generation working surface 11 'of the membrane electrode assembly, and are contacted with the second heat conduction member 5'. The third heat conducting member is sandwiched between the upper and lower sides of the membrane electrode assembly by the laminated arrangement of the membrane electrode assembly and the bipolar plate, and is in close contact with the second heat conducting member to conduct heat, and may or may not be in contact with the first heat conducting member (in this embodiment, a gap is provided between the third heat conducting member and the first heat conducting member). The third heat conducting member may further be provided with perforations 61' for gas to enter, corresponding to the power generation working face of the membrane electrode assembly and the flow field of the bipolar plate, and the perforations should be distributed uniformly as much as possible, so as to meet the electrochemical reaction requirement of the gas entering the surface of the membrane electrode assembly. The third heat conductive member was corrosion-resistant high heat conductive graphite (GRAF SS 400.94T in U.S.) having a heat conductivity of 400W/mK. Although graphite has a relatively low hardness, it has a high thermal conductivity, thereby excellently satisfying the demand for heat supply to the membrane electrode assembly, and has a density of 1.5g/cm 3 Specific heat of 510J/Kg. Deg.C, and resistivity of less than 1x10 -6 Omega.m, better than 1x10 required by the United states department of energy -4 The standard of omega.m can well bear the task of conducting heat and electricity for the membrane electrode assembly.
In this way, heat starts from a heat source, passes through the first heat conducting element (and the insulating element), the second heat conducting element and the third heat conducting element to reach the membrane electrode assembly, all solid connection is adopted between the first heat conducting element 4 'and the second heat conducting element 5', between the second heat conducting element 5 'and the third heat conducting element 6', and between the third heat conducting element 6 'and the membrane electrode assembly 1' to transfer heat in a close contact mode, heat transfer efficiency is high, and the fuel cell is simple and reliable, low in cost and low in processing difficulty, and is very beneficial to mass production.
A heat source 7' is arranged below the first heat conducting member to release heat sufficiently by means of burning fuel, for example, using a methanol burner to burn pure methanol to provide heat to the fuel cell, alternatively the heat source may provide heat in other forms.
The temperature was measured for the fuel cell according to the above-described embodiment.
Temperature measuring points are respectively arranged on the 1 st membrane electrode assembly and the 2 nd membrane electrode assembly from top to bottom, as shown in fig. 4, 3 temperature measuring points are respectively arranged at the central line position of the power generation working surface of each membrane electrode assembly, the temperature measuring points on the membrane electrode assembly (the 1 st membrane electrode assembly) far away from the heat source are numbered a ', b', c ', and the temperature measuring points on the membrane electrode assembly (the 2 nd membrane electrode assembly) close to the heat source are numbered d', e ', f'. Data are collected every 60 seconds, the temperature rise condition of each group of temperature measuring points is counted, and after more than 10 experiments are carried out, the average value is taken as a measuring result. The temperature conditions at each 60 seconds from the ambient temperature (20 ℃) at each measured temperature point are shown in Table 2.
TABLE 2
In this embodiment, the proton exchange membrane electrode assembly used in the fuel cell has an operating temperature of 120 ℃ to 180 ℃, preferably an operating temperature of 160 ℃, and the membrane electrode assembly is easily damaged when the operating temperature exceeds 200 ℃, and is difficult to generate electricity effectively when the operating temperature is lower than 120 ℃. In the prior art, the heating and preheating of the fuel cell generally needs 30-60 minutes, the heating is uneven, and the overall power generation capacity of the electric pile is poor.
As can be seen from table 1, the membrane electrode assembly of the present invention can reach an effective operating temperature 300 seconds after heating is started, and the time for warming up and preheating can be greatly shortened compared with the prior art. Meanwhile, the temperature difference on the same membrane electrode assembly is smaller, and the temperature difference between the membrane electrode assemblies at different positions in the electric pile is smaller. After the membrane electrode assembly close to the heat source reaches the optimal working temperature range, the temperature of the membrane electrode assemblies positioned at the middle part and the upper part can also reach the optimal working temperature quickly, so that the membrane electrode assemblies close to the heat source cannot be overhigh in temperature, the membrane electrode assemblies positioned at the middle part and the upper part cannot be overlow in temperature, excellent temperature consistency is reflected, and powerful guarantee is provided for improving the power generation capacity of a galvanic pile.
From this, the fuel cell of the present embodiment achieves excellent system thermal performance at low manufacturing cost, and achieves the intended effect.
[ example 3 ]
Fig. 7 is an exploded view of a fuel cell according to another embodiment of the present invention, fig. 8 is a front view of the fuel cell in fig. 7, and fig. 9 is a sectional view of the fuel cell taken along line a "-a".
As shown in fig. 7, the fuel cell of the present invention includes a stack for generating electricity, a heat conduction assembly for conducting heat from a heat source to the stack, and a heat source for providing heat.
The stack comprises 1 membrane electrode assembly 1 "and 2 unipolar plates 3" arranged at the top and bottom of the stack, respectively, the heat conducting assembly comprising 2 first heat conducting members 4", 4 second heat conducting members 5" and 2 third heat conducting members 6". The first heat conducting piece and the second heat conducting piece transfer heat through a conduction mode, the second heat conducting piece and the third heat conducting piece transfer heat through a conduction mode, the third heat conducting piece and the membrane electrode assembly transfer heat through a conduction mode, and all parts transfer heat through a conduction mode.
The membrane electrode assembly 1 "is a proton exchange membrane electrode assembly (for example, a Celtec-P-1000MEA type proton exchange membrane electrode assembly purchased from ADVEDT corporation, U.S.A.), which is a hexahedral structure as shown in FIG. 7, with power generation faces (i.e., power generation faces 11") disposed on both faces having the largest area (i.e., upper and lower faces in FIG. 7), the power generation faces having an area of about 45cm 2
The unipolar plate is sheet-shaped, the surface of the unipolar plate opposite to the membrane electrode assembly is provided with a flow field, namely, the lower surface of the unipolar plate positioned at the top of the electric pile is provided with a flow field 31 ', and the upper surface of the unipolar plate positioned at the bottom of the electric pile is provided with a flow field 31', and the flow fields are all in a serpentine shape. The unipolar plate is made of polyphenylene sulfide PPS, and has a thermal conductivity of 2w/mk and a corrosion resistance of 0.85 mu A/cm 2 Permeation of hydrogenAir ratio 1.23 - 6 cm 3 /cm 2 s, heat distortion temperature 270 ℃ under 1.82Mp pressure, resistivity 3 x 10 16 Ω·m。
The single-pole plates and the membrane electrode assemblies in the electric pile are stacked and arranged along the direction (such as the Y direction in fig. 7) perpendicular to the power generation working face according to the sequence of one single-pole plate 3 ', one membrane electrode assembly 1 ', and one single-pole plate 3 ', and the power generation working face of the membrane electrode assembly and the flow field of the single-pole plate correspond to each other.
As shown in fig. 7, the first heat conductive members 4 "are provided on both sides of the stack in a direction perpendicular to the power generation working surface 11" (e.g., Y direction in fig. 7) in a long plate shape to rapidly and uniformly transfer heat generated from the heat source. The ceramic is aluminum nitride ceramic, and the thermal conductivity is 180W/m.K.
The second heat conducting members 5 "are disposed between the unipolar plate 3" and the first heat conducting member 4", and are disposed on both sides of the unipolar plate, that is, along the direction of the power generation working face 11" (e.g., the X direction in fig. 7), and are in contact with the first heat conducting member for transferring the heat transferred from the first heat conducting member to the third heat conducting member. The second heat conducting members are connected to both sides of the monopole plate through hooks, and may be in contact with the monopole plate or not (in this embodiment, the second heat conducting members are in contact with the monopole plate), and may have the same thickness as the monopole plate, so as to facilitate stacking of the respective components in the electric pile.
In this embodiment, the second heat conductive member may be made of aluminum nitride ceramic having a thermal conductivity of 180W/mK, which is advantageous for heat transfer. At this time, since the second heat conductive member is not electrically conductive, it is necessary to add an electrically conductive member to the second heat conductive member to perform the electrically conductive function of the external circuit, and the electrically conductive member to perform the electrically conductive function has an electrical conductivity of less than 1×10 -4 Omega.m, meets the requirements of the U.S. department of energy. In this embodiment, the second heat conducting member 5 "is perforated, and the conductive member 51" (for example, copper nail) is implanted in the perforation so that the second heat conducting member can perform the function of conducting electricity to the external circuit, or the second heat conducting member may be coated with an electrically conductive metal in a region not in contact with the first heat conducting member. Alternatively, the second heat conductive member may be directly conductive with gold, silver, copper, aluminum, or the likeMade of electro-metal.
The third heat conducting member 6 "is disposed between the adjacent membrane electrode assembly 1" and the monopolar plate 3", that is, on both upper and lower sides of the membrane electrode assembly, in contact with the power generation working face 11" of the membrane electrode assembly, and in contact with the second heat conducting member 5 ". The third heat conducting member is sandwiched between the upper and lower sides of the membrane electrode assembly by the arrangement of the membrane electrode assembly and the unipolar plate, and is in close contact with the second heat conducting member to conduct heat, and may or may not be in contact with the first heat conducting member (in this embodiment, a gap is provided between the third heat conducting member and the first heat conducting member). The third heat conducting member may further be provided with perforations 61″ for gas to enter, corresponding to the power generation working face of the membrane electrode assembly and the flow field of the bipolar plate, the perforations being uniformly distributed as much as possible, so as to meet the electrochemical reaction requirement of the gas entering the surface of the membrane electrode assembly. The third heat conductive member was corrosion-resistant high heat conductive graphite (GRAF SS 400.94T in U.S.) having a heat conductivity of 400W/mK. Although graphite has a relatively low hardness, it has a high thermal conductivity, thereby excellently satisfying the demand for heat supply to the membrane electrode assembly, and has a density of 1.5g/cm 3 Specific heat of 510J/Kg. Deg.C, and resistivity of less than 1x10 -6 Omega.m, better than 1x10 required by the United states department of energy -4 The standard of omega.m can well bear the task of conducting heat and electricity for the membrane electrode assembly.
In this embodiment, since the first heat conducting member and the second heat conducting member are both made of aluminum nitride ceramic and are not electrically conductive, an insulating member is not required to be disposed between the first heat conducting member and the second heat conducting member.
In this way, heat from the heat source reaches the membrane electrode assembly through the first heat conducting member, the second heat conducting member and the third heat conducting member, between the first heat conducting member 4 'and the second heat conducting member 5', between the second heat conducting member 5 'and the third heat conducting member 6', the third heat conductive member 6 "is in close contact with the membrane electrode assembly 1" through solid connection, the heat is transferred by utilizing a conduction mode, the heat transfer efficiency is high, and the fuel cell is simple and reliable, low in cost and low in processing difficulty, and is very beneficial to mass production.
A heat source 7 "is arranged below the first heat conducting member to release heat sufficiently by means of burning fuel, for example by burning pure methanol with a methanol burner to provide heat to the fuel cell, alternatively the heat source may provide heat in other forms.
The temperature was measured for the fuel cell according to the above-described embodiment.
As shown in fig. 7, 3 temperature measurement points are mounted on the center line of the power generation surface of the membrane electrode assembly, and the temperature measurement points are numbered a ", b", and c ". Data are collected every 60 seconds, the temperature rise condition of each group of temperature measuring points is counted, and after more than 10 experiments are carried out, the average value is taken as a measuring result. The temperature conditions at each 60 seconds from the ambient temperature (20 ℃) at each measured temperature point are shown in Table 3.
TABLE 3 Table 3
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In this embodiment, the proton exchange membrane electrode assembly used in the fuel cell has an operating temperature of 120 ℃ to 180 ℃, preferably an operating temperature of 160 ℃, and the membrane electrode assembly is easily damaged when the operating temperature exceeds 200 ℃, and is difficult to generate electricity effectively when the operating temperature is lower than 120 ℃. In the prior art, the heating and preheating of the fuel cell generally needs 30-60 minutes, the heating is uneven, and the overall power generation capacity of the electric pile is poor.
As can be seen from table 3, the membrane electrode assembly of the present invention can reach an effective operating temperature less than 300 seconds after starting heating, and the time for warming up and preheating can be greatly shortened compared with the prior art. Meanwhile, the temperature difference on the same membrane electrode assembly is smaller, and the temperature difference between the membrane electrode assemblies at different positions in the electric pile is smaller. After the membrane electrode assembly close to the heat source reaches the optimal working temperature range, the temperature of the membrane electrode assemblies positioned at the middle part and the upper part can also reach the optimal working temperature quickly, so that the membrane electrode assemblies close to the heat source cannot be overhigh in temperature, the membrane electrode assemblies positioned at the middle part and the upper part cannot be overlow in temperature, excellent temperature consistency is reflected, and powerful guarantee is provided for improving the power generation capacity of a galvanic pile.
From this, it can be seen that the fuel cell of the present embodiment exhibits excellent system thermal performance, and achieves the intended effect.
Of course, the fuel cell of the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments, and the number of membrane electrode assemblies and bipolar plates, for example, 20 membrane electrode assemblies, 18 bipolar plates and 2 unipolar plates, 30 membrane electrode assemblies, 28 bipolar plates and 2 unipolar plates, etc., may be selected according to practical needs, and the number of heat conducting members may be selected according to practical needs, for example, the first heat conducting member may surround the sides 1, 3, 4 of the stacks, the second heat conducting member may be located at the ends 1, 3, 4 of the bipolar plates/unipolar plates, and the membrane electrode assemblies, bipolar plates/unipolar plates, heat conducting assemblies, heat sources and/or insulators are not limited to the materials in the above embodiments, and may be selected according to practical needs by those skilled in the art.
The fuel cell of the present invention exhibits excellent system thermal performance, achieving the intended effect. The invention solves the problem of preheating and heating of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell, enhances the power generation capacity of the fuel cell, reduces the manufacturing cost of the bipolar plate, and provides the fuel cell with simple structure, low cost, high performance and high efficiency.
The terms and expressions used in the description of the present invention are used as examples only and are not meant to be limiting. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that numerous changes may be made to the details of the above-described embodiments without departing from the underlying principles of the disclosed embodiments. The scope of the invention is therefore to be determined only by the following claims, in which all terms are to be understood in their broadest reasonable sense unless otherwise indicated.

Claims (21)

1. A fuel cell comprising:
a stack including at least one membrane electrode assembly and at least one bipolar plate, wherein the upper surface and the lower surface of each membrane electrode assembly are provided with power generation working surfaces, and the at least one membrane electrode assembly and the at least one bipolar plate are arranged in a stacked arrangement along a direction perpendicular to the power generation working surfaces;
a heat source for providing heat; and
a thermally conductive assembly for conducting heat from the heat source to the at least one membrane electrode assembly, wherein the thermally conductive assembly comprises:
the first heat conduction piece is arranged on at least one side of the electric pile along the direction perpendicular to the power generation working face, the heat conductivity of the first heat conduction piece is not less than 10W/m.K, the first heat conduction piece consists of a solid shell and a fluid working medium sealed in the solid shell, and the exposed part of the first heat conduction piece provides more heat dissipation area for heat dissipation, so that a heat dissipation device is conveniently arranged or waste heat is further utilized;
The second heat conduction piece is arranged between the first heat conduction piece and the at least one bipolar plate, and transmits heat with the first heat conduction piece in a conduction mode, and the heat conductivity of the second heat conduction piece is not less than 120W/m.K;
the third heat conduction piece is arranged between the membrane electrode assemblies and the bipolar plates which are arranged in a stacked mode, heat is transferred between the third heat conduction piece and the second heat conduction piece in a conduction mode and is contacted with the second heat conduction piece, heat is transferred between the third heat conduction piece and the membrane electrode assemblies in a conduction mode and is contacted with the power generation working face of the membrane electrode assemblies, and the heat conductivity of the third heat conduction piece is not less than 120W/m.K.
2. A fuel cell comprising:
the electric pile comprises a membrane electrode assembly and a pair of unipolar plates, wherein the upper surface and the lower surface of the membrane electrode assembly are respectively provided with a power generation working surface, and the pair of unipolar plates are respectively arranged on the upper side and the lower side of the power generation working surface along the direction perpendicular to the power generation working surface;
a heat source for providing heat, and
a thermally conductive assembly for conducting heat from the heat source to the membrane electrode assembly, wherein the thermally conductive assembly comprises:
The first heat conduction piece is arranged on at least one side of the electric pile along the direction perpendicular to the power generation working face, the heat conductivity of the first heat conduction piece is not less than 10W/m.K, the first heat conduction piece consists of a solid shell and a fluid working medium sealed in the solid shell, and the exposed part of the first heat conduction piece provides more heat dissipation area for heat dissipation, so that a heat dissipation device is conveniently arranged or waste heat is further utilized;
the second heat conduction piece is arranged between the first heat conduction piece and the monopole plate, and transmits heat with the first heat conduction piece in a conduction mode, and the heat conductivity of the second heat conduction piece is not less than 120W/m.K;
the third heat conduction piece is arranged between the membrane electrode assembly and the monopole plate, heat is transferred between the third heat conduction piece and the second heat conduction piece in a conduction mode and is contacted with the second heat conduction piece, heat is transferred between the third heat conduction piece and the membrane electrode assembly in a conduction mode and is contacted with a power generation working face of the membrane electrode assembly, and the heat conductivity of the third heat conduction piece is not less than 120W/m.K.
3. The fuel cell according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the fuel cell further comprises an insulating member provided between the first heat conductive member and the second heat conductive member in a direction perpendicular to the power generation working face, the first heat conductive member being in contact with the second heat conductive member through the insulating member.
4. The fuel cell according to claim 3, wherein the insulating member has a sheet shape and is attached to a portion of the first heat conductive member that contacts the second heat conductive member.
5. The fuel cell according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the solid housing of the first heat conductive member is made of a metallic material or a nonmetallic material, and the fluid working substance is a liquid or a gas.
6. The fuel cell according to claim 5, wherein the metal material has a thermal conductivity of greater than 10W/m-K; the thermal conductivity of the nonmetallic material is greater than 10W/m.K.
7. The fuel cell according to claim 6, wherein the first heat conductive member is made of a heat pipe having a thermal conductivity of more than 400W/m-K.
8. The fuel cell of claim 7, wherein the heat pipe is a non-phase change heat pipe having a thermal conductivity greater than 1000W/m-K.
9. The fuel cell according to claim 6, wherein the metal material comprises: copper, iron, aluminum, nickel, and titanium; the nonmetallic material includes: aluminum nitride, aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, and carbon.
10. The fuel cell according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first heat conductive member is made of a metallic material or a nonmetallic material.
11. The fuel cell of claim 10, wherein the metallic material comprises: gold, silver, copper, iron, aluminum, nickel, and titanium; the nonmetallic material includes: aluminum nitride, aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, and carbon.
12. The fuel cell according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the second heat conductive member is made of a metallic material or a nonmetallic material.
13. The fuel cell of claim 12, wherein the metallic material comprises: gold, silver, copper, aluminum; the nonmetallic material includes: aluminum nitride ceramics, carbon.
14. The fuel cell according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the third heat conductive member is made of an electrically conductive nonmetallic material.
15. The fuel cell of claim 14, wherein the electrically conductive non-metallic material comprises: and (3) carbon.
16. The fuel cell of claim 4, wherein the insulator has a resistivity greater than 1x10 10 Ω·m。
17. The fuel cell according to claim 16, wherein the insulating member is made of ceramic or plastic.
18. The fuel cell of claim 17, wherein the ceramic comprises: aluminum nitride, aluminum oxide, said plastic comprising: nylon PA, polyetheretherketone PEEK, polyimide PI, polyphenylene sulfide PPS, polytetrafluoroethylene PTFE, and liquid crystal polymer LCP.
19. The fuel cell according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the bipolar plate has a thermal conductivity of not more than 10W/m-K and an electrical resistivity of more than 1 x 10 -4 Ω·m。
20. The fuel cell of claim 19, wherein the bipolar plate is made of ceramic or plastic.
21. The fuel cell of claim 20, wherein the plastic comprises: nylon PA, polyetheretherketone PEEK, polyimide PI, polyphenylene sulfide PPS, polytetrafluoroethylene PTFE, and liquid crystal polymer LCP.
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