CN110828848B

CN110828848B - Heat-storage temperature-control bipolar plate

Info

Publication number: CN110828848B
Application number: CN201911113972.0A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 李印实; 邓世培; 谢超
Original assignee: Shenzhen Research Institute Of Xi'an Jiaotong University; Xian Jiaotong University
Current assignee: Shenzhen Research Institute Of Xi'an Jiaotong University; Xian Jiaotong University
Priority date: 2019-11-14
Filing date: 2019-11-14
Publication date: 2022-02-08
Anticipated expiration: 2039-11-14
Also published as: CN110828848A

Abstract

The invention discloses a heat storage and temperature control bipolar plate, which comprises a plate body, a shell and a cavity formed by coating the shell, wherein the cavity formed by coating the shell is filled with a phase-change material; the problem of local overheating caused by uneven reactant concentration distribution is solved, the redundant heat generated by reaction is rapidly introduced into the phase-change material through the inner fins for storage, and the part of heat is further transferred to the outside or used as the heat for restarting the battery so as to reduce the restarting time.

Description

Heat-storage temperature-control bipolar plate

Technical Field

The invention relates to the field of electrochemical reaction devices, in particular to a heat storage and temperature control bipolar plate.

Background

Greenhouse effect and environmental pollution are series of problems caused by the development of the modern industrial society, the utilization of fossil energy is further limited in the future, and the development of a clean, efficient and reliable green energy utilization mode is a necessary way for promoting the transformation and upgrading of the industry. Among new energy sources and technologies thereof, an electrochemical reaction device has attracted attention due to its characteristic of no pollution in the process of converting chemical energy into electric energy in an electrochemical reaction manner. The electrochemical reaction device essentially generates oxidation-reduction reaction, and continuously and controllably outputs electric energy to the outside under the action of a catalyst. The electrochemical reaction device mainly includes an electrochemical energy supply device represented by a fuel cell, and an electrochemical energy storage device represented by a flow battery. The fuel cell is a high-efficiency clean pollution-free electrochemical reactor for directly converting chemical energy into electric energy, has the characteristics of high thermal efficiency, low emission, even zero emission and the like, can be assembled in a modularized mode, and is a hotspot for research in the field of energy sources. The redox flow battery can be charged and discharged, and the charge and discharge are realized through the valence state change of the anode electrolyte solution and the cathode electrolyte solution which are circulated respectively, so that the electrochemical energy storage device has high capacity, wide application range and long service life.

As an electrochemical reaction device, a fuel cell and a flow battery are similar in operation principle and device structure. The main components of the two comprise an important assembly of the bipolar plate, and the bipolar plate mainly plays a role in collecting and supporting current in the battery. The flow field on the bipolar plate distributes fluid to the reactive area, directly affecting the chemical reaction rate on the reactive area and thus the overall performance of the cell. The battery is inevitably subjected to the influence of uneven distribution of the catalyst, uneven distribution of reactants, inherent defects of a flow field structure and the like, and the situation of uneven temperature and even local overheating phenomenon occur on the battery. Thermal management of an electrochemical reaction device is a key to affecting the performance of the electrochemical reaction device. In the prior art, the electrochemical reaction device can only be subjected to thermal management operation by means of an external additional structure, and no new design is provided from the internal structure of the bipolar plate. In addition, the chemical energy converted by the electrochemical reaction device is partially dissipated outwards in the form of heat energy, so that the overall energy utilization rate is reduced. This heat has the dual characteristics of being difficult to utilize and affecting the performance of the battery, and therefore, it is necessary to properly handle this heat.

Accordingly, those skilled in the art have been devoted to developing a heat storage and temperature control bipolar plate.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to overcome the defects of the prior art, the invention aims to provide a heat storage and temperature control bipolar plate which solves the problem of local overheating of an electrochemical reaction device.

In order to achieve the purpose, the invention adopts the technical scheme that:

a heat storage and temperature control bipolar plate comprises a plate body, a shell and a cavity formed by coating the shell;

the shell forms an outer layer framework of the plate body, the shell protrudes upwards to form hollow ribbed plates, a downward-concave flow channel is formed between the two ribbed plates, the flow channel and the ribbed plates are distributed on the plate body at intervals, inner fins which are connected with the shell and are uniformly distributed are distributed in the cavity, and phase-change materials are filled in the cavity.

Further, the inner fins are arranged inside the hollow rib plates and on the upper surface and the lower surface of the plate body.

Further, the inner fins arranged on the upper surface and the lower surface of the plate body are perpendicular to the plate body, and the inner fins on the inner walls of the two sides of the hollow rib plate are obliquely arranged.

Further, the inner fin is thin and has a thickness of 0.1-0.3 mm.

Furthermore, the height and the width of the flow channel are the same as those of the ribbed plates.

Further, the outer shell and the inner fins are made of copper, aluminum or alloy materials.

Further, the melting point of the phase-change material filled in the cavity is 50-80 ℃.

Further, the phase change material is paraffin.

The invention has the following technical effects:

1. aiming at the problems of uneven temperature distribution and local overheating in the fuel cell, the phase-change material is filled in the bipolar plate, and the temperature of the bipolar plate is controlled in a reasonable range and is uniform by selecting the phase-change material with proper physical properties to absorb the heat of an overheating area; the problem of local overheating caused by uneven reactant concentration distribution is solved, the redundant heat generated by reaction is rapidly introduced into the phase-change material through the inner fins for storage, and the part of heat is further transferred to the outside or used as the heat for restarting the battery so as to reduce the restarting time.

2. According to the invention, the heat conduction inner fin is arranged in the bipolar plate, so that the problem of poor heat conductivity of the phase-change material is effectively solved, and the process of transferring and storing heat to the phase-change material is enhanced.

3. The bipolar plate with the temperature regulation function is simple in structure and can be obtained by printing through a 3D printing technology, and the manufacturing process difficulty of the bipolar plate with the temperature regulation function is reduced.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a bipolar plate according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a fuel cell incorporating the present invention;

in the figure: 1. a plate body; 2. a housing; 3. a cavity; 4. a rib plate; 5. a flow channel; 6. an inner fin; 7. a phase change material; 8. and a membrane electrode.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described in further detail with reference to the following examples, which are not intended to limit the invention thereto.

In the drawings, structurally identical elements are represented by like reference numerals, and structurally or functionally similar elements are represented by like reference numerals throughout the several views. The size and thickness of each component shown in the drawings are arbitrarily illustrated, and the present invention is not limited to the size and thickness of each component. The thickness of the components may be exaggerated where appropriate in the figures to improve clarity.

As shown in fig. 1, the heat storage and temperature control bipolar plate of the present invention comprises a plate body 1, a housing 2, a cavity 3 formed by the housing being coated, a ribbed plate 4, a flow channel 5, an inner fin 6, and a phase change material 7, wherein the housing 2 forms an outer layer skeleton of the plate body 1, the flow channel 5 and the ribbed plate 4 have the same height and width and are arranged on the plate body 1 at intervals, the inner fin 6 is connected with the housing 2 and is distributed in the cavity 3 formed by the housing being coated, and the cavity 3 formed by the housing being coated is filled with the phase change material 7.

The thickness of the lamellar inner fins 6 is 0.1-0.3mm, the lamellar inner fins are uniformly arranged in the shell 2, and the inner fins 6 comprise inclined inner fins distributed in the rib plates 4 and inner fins which are distributed on the upper surface and the lower surface of the bipolar plate and are vertical to the upper surface and the lower surface of the bipolar plate; the same material is used for the outer shell 2 and the inner fins 6, in this embodiment copper, aluminum or an alloy material with a high thermal conductivity. The phase-change material 7 filled in the cavity 3 formed by the coating of the shell has large phase-change latent heat, stable chemical property and melting point of 50-80 ℃, and is paraffin in the embodiment.

Drawing a bipolar plate structure drawing provided by the invention in a computer, and inputting the drawing into a 3D printer to print layer by layer to manufacture the temperature control bipolar plate of the fuel cell.

As shown in fig. 2, the fuel cell reactant respectively enters the anode and the cathode of the fuel cell through the external pipeline, and is transferred to the membrane electrode direction through the flow channel on the bipolar plate; the cathode and anode reactants respectively generate cell half-reaction on the cathode and anode catalyst layers positioned on the membrane electrode 8, and the reaction process is accompanied with the release of heat; the heat generated on the membrane electrode 8 is conducted outwards, and when the heat flows through the shell 2 with high heat conductivity coefficient, the heat is stored in the phase-change material 7 filled in the cavity 3 formed by coating the shell; the inner fins 6 enhance the heat storage process due to the high heat conduction characteristic.

The fuel cell has a suitable working temperature, such as a high-efficiency working temperature range of 70-90 ℃ of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell. When the fuel cell is in the process of working-stopping-restarting, the heat stored in the phase change material is released to the membrane electrode, so that the fuel cell can be quickly started and reaches the rated working state.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above embodiments are only for illustrating the technical solutions of the present invention and not for limiting the same, and although the present invention is described in detail with reference to the above embodiments, those of ordinary skill in the art should understand that: modifications and equivalents may be made to the embodiments of the invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, which is to be covered by the claims.

Claims

1. A heat storage and temperature control bipolar plate is characterized by comprising a plate body (1), an outer shell (2) and a cavity (3) formed by coating the outer shell;

the plate is characterized in that the shell (2) forms an outer layer framework of the plate body (1), the shell (2) protrudes upwards to form hollow rib plates (4), a sunken flow channel (5) is formed between the two rib plates (4), the flow channel (5) and the rib plates (4) are distributed on the plate body (1) at intervals, inner fins (6) which are connected with the shell (2) and are uniformly distributed are distributed in the cavity (3), and phase-change materials (7) are filled in the cavity (3);

inner fins are arranged inside the hollow rib plates (4) and on the upper surface and the lower surface of the plate body (1);

inner fins (6) arranged on the upper surface and the lower surface of the plate body (1) are perpendicular to the plate body (1), and the inner fins (6) on the inner walls of the two sides of the hollow rib plate (4) are obliquely arranged; the melting point of the phase-change material (7) filled in the cavity (3) is 50-80 ℃; the phase change material (7) is paraffin.

2. A heat-storing and temperature-controlling bipolar plate according to claim 1, wherein said inner fins (6) are thin-sheet-like and have a thickness of 0.1-0.3 mm.

3. A heat-storage and temperature-control bipolar plate according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the height and width of the flow channels (5) and the ribs (4) are the same.

4. A heat-storing and temperature-controlling bipolar plate according to claim 3, wherein the outer shell (2) and the inner fins (6) are made of copper, aluminum or an alloy material.