CN2476106Y - Improved fuel battery - Google Patents
Improved fuel battery Download PDFInfo
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- CN2476106Y CN2476106Y CN01239263U CN01239263U CN2476106Y CN 2476106 Y CN2476106 Y CN 2476106Y CN 01239263 U CN01239263 U CN 01239263U CN 01239263 U CN01239263 U CN 01239263U CN 2476106 Y CN2476106 Y CN 2476106Y
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- fuel cell
- external
- improved fuel
- flow guide
- membrane electrode
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Abstract
The utility model relates to an improved fuel cell, including at least a film electrode, at least two diversion polar plate, at least a peripherals fluid channel, at least a branch pipe, at least a connecting rod, a cooling unit, a monitoring unit; a cell unit is formed by making two diversion polar plate clamp a film electrode, each cell unit is connected in series together by the connecting rod, and connected with the cooling unit and the monitoring unit to form the fuel cell. Compared with the existing technology, the utility model has large effective areas of polar plate and the film electrode, the resistance of fluid transmission is small, the product cost is low, and the installation is easy.
Description
The present invention relates to electrochemical fuel cells, and more particularly to an improved fuel cell.
An electrochemical fuel cell is a device that is capable of converting hydrogen fuel and an oxidant into electrical energy and reaction products. The inner core component of the device is a Membrane Electrode (MEA), which is composed of a proton exchange Membrane and two porous conductive materials sandwiched between two surfaces of the Membrane, such as carbon paper. The membrane contains a uniform and finely dispersed catalyst, such as a platinum metal catalyst, for initiating an electrochemical reaction at the interface between the membrane and the carbon paper. The electrons generated in the electrochemical reaction process can be led out by conductive objects at two sides of the membrane electrode through an external circuit to form a current loop.
At the anode end of the membrane electrode, fuel can permeate through a porous diffusion material (carbon paper) and undergo electrochemical reaction on the surface of a catalyst to lose electrons to form positive ions, and the positive ions can pass through a proton exchange membrane through migration to reach the cathode end at the other end of the membrane electrode. At the cathode end of the membrane electrode, a gas containing an oxidant (e.g., oxygen), such as air, forms negative ions by permeating through a porous diffusion material (carbon paper) and electrochemically reacting on the surface of the catalyst to give electrons. The anions formed at the cathode end react with the positive ions transferred from the anode end to form reaction products.
In a pem fuel cell using hydrogen as the fuel and oxygen-containing air as the oxidant (or pure oxygen as the oxidant), the catalytic electrochemical reaction of the fuel hydrogen in the anode region produces hydrogen cations (or protons). The proton exchange membrane assists the migration of positive hydrogen ions from the anode region to the cathode region. In addition, the proton exchange membrane separates the hydrogen-containing fuel gas stream from the oxygen-containing gas stream so that they do not mix with each other to cause explosive reactions.
In the cathode region, oxygen gains electrons on the catalyst surface, forming negative ions, which react with the hydrogen positive ions transported from the anode region to produce water as a reaction product. In a proton exchange membrane fuel cell using hydrogen, air (oxygen), the anode reaction and the cathode reaction can be expressed by the following equations:
and (3) anode reaction:
and (3) cathode reaction:
in a typical pem fuel cell, a Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA) is typically placed between two conductive plates, and the surface of each conductive plate in contact with the MEA is die-cast, stamped, or mechanically milled to form at least one or more channels. The conductive plates can be plates made of metal materials or plates made of graphite materials. The flow guide pore canals and the flow guide grooves on the conductive polar plates respectively guide the fuel and the oxidant into the anode area and the cathode area on two sides of the membrane electrode. In the structure of a single proton exchange membrane fuel cell, only one membrane electrode is arranged, and a flow guide polar plate of anode fuel and a flow guide polar plate of cathode oxidant are respectively arranged on two sides of the membrane electrode. The flow guide polar plates are used as current collector plates and mechanical supports at two sides of the membrane electrode, and the flow guide grooves on the flow guide polar plates are also used as channels for fuel and oxidant to enter the surfaces of the anode and the cathode and as channels for taking away water generated in the operation process of the fuel cell.
In order to increase the total power of the whole proton exchange membrane fuel cell, two or more single cells can be connected in series to form a battery pack in astraight-stacked manner or connected in a flat-laid manner to form a battery pack. In the direct-stacking and serial-type battery pack, two surfaces of one polar plate can be provided with flow guide grooves, wherein one surface can be used as an anode flow guide surface of one membrane electrode, and the other surface can be used as a cathode flow guide surface of another adjacent membrane electrode, and the polar plate is called a bipolar plate. A series of cells are connected together in a manner to form a battery pack. The battery pack is generally fastened together into one body by a front end plate, a rear end plate and a tie rod.
A typical battery pack generally includes: (1) the fuel (such as hydrogen, methanol or hydrogen-rich gas obtained by reforming methanol, natural gas and gasoline) and the oxidant (mainly oxygen or air) are uniformly distributed in the diversion trenches of the anode surface and the cathode surface; (2) cooling fluid (such as water) is uniformly distributed into cooling channels in each battery pack through an inlet and an outlet of the cooling fluid and a flow guide channel, and heat generated by electrochemical exothermic reaction of hydrogen and oxygen in the fuel cell is absorbed and taken out of the battery pack for heat dissipation; (3) the outlets of the fuel gas and the oxidant gas and the corresponding flow guide channels can carry out liquid and vapor water generated in the fuel cell when the fuel gas and the oxidant gas are discharged. Typically, all fuel, oxidant, and cooling fluid inlets and outlets are provided in one or both end plates of the fuel cell stack.
The positive hydrogen ions in the anode region migrate through the proton exchange membrane and usually need to carry a large number of water molecules to pass through together, so that the water molecules must be kept on the two side surfaces of the membrane to ensure that the migration conductance of the positive hydrogen ions is not affected.Therefore, the fuel and oxidant gases must be humidified before they enter the active region of the fuel cell to react in order to ensure that the membrane in the membrane electrode is saturated with water.
At present, the proton exchange membrane fuel cell usually uses the effective utilization area of the sacrificial plate in the design of each fluid channel, and the same position of each membrane electrode and the plate is provided with a fluid hole, and each membrane electrode and the plate are overlapped to form each fluid channel. That is, each membrane electrode and polar plate is provided with holes for fuel inlet, fuel outlet, oxidant inlet, oxidant outlet, cooling fluid inlet and cooling fluid outlet, the membrane electrodes and polar plates are overlapped in a certain way to form fluid channels for fuel inlet and outlet, oxidant inlet and outlet and cooling fluid inlet and outlet inside the fuel cell set, and the fluid channels are integrated on the front end plate and the rear end plate of the fuel cell set to form a fuel inlet, a fuel outlet, an oxidant inlet, an oxidant outlet, a cooling fluid inlet and a cooling fluid outlet. Almost all pem fuel cell stacks so far have adopted such a structure as described above. The above-described generic structure suffers from the following drawbacks:
1. each fluid channel occupies a very large area of the plate or membrane electrode, which greatly reduces the effective area of the plate or membrane electrode in the fuel cell, generally using less than 70% of the area.
2. Both the plate material and the membrane electrode material are generally expensive, and a large number of fluid passage holes must be punched in the processing, so that a large amount of raw materials are wasted.
3. The surface of a part of a fluid channel of the fuel cell stack is not smooth due to the processing precision and the expansion caused by heat and the contraction caused by cold of different materials, so that resistance is increased for the transmission of each fluid, and transmission energy is wasted.
The present invention is directed to overcome the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art and to provide an improved fuel cell with a large effective area of the electrode plate and the membrane electrode, a small fluid transfer resistance, and a low cost.
The purpose of the utility model can be realized through the following technical scheme: an improved fuel cell comprises at least one membrane electrode, at least two flow guide polar plates, at least one connecting rod, a cooling unit and a monitoring unit, wherein each membrane electrode is formed by attaching catalysts and porous carbon paper to two sides of a proton exchange membrane; and clamping a membrane electrode by the two flow guide polar plates to form a battery unit, connecting the battery units together in series through connecting rods, and connecting the battery units into the cooling unit and the monitoring unit to form the fuel cell.
The peripheral fluid passage comprises a peripheral inlet fluid passage.
The external fluid passage also comprises an external fluid passage which is communicated with the outflow hole through a branch pipe.
The peripheral fluid passage comprises a peripheral fuel hydrogen passage.
The peripheral fluid passage further comprises a peripheral oxidant passage.
The peripheral fluid passage further comprises a peripheral cooling water passage.
The external fluid channel is made of engineering plastics or stainless steel pipes.
The utility modeldiscloses owing to adopted above technical scheme, the structure of fuel cell outer passageway is walked respectively to various fluids promptly, any fluid advances or goes out and all adopts a unified outer passageway pipe, this root passageway pipe can adopt the very glossy engineering plastic tubing in surface or nonrust steel pipe, it is continuous with each polar plate to branch many branch pipes in the outer passageway pipe of this root unification, the fluid can flow through the influent hole of polar plate and flow to the guiding gutter by the passageway pipe, also can flow through the effluent hole of polar plate and flow to the passageway pipe by the guiding gutter. Compared with the prior art, the utility model has the advantages of it is following:
1. the effective area of the polar plate and the membrane electrode is greatly increased, thereby improving the working efficiency of the fuel cell.
2. The fluid is uniformly distributed outside the channel, the channel pipe can be made of a cheaper engineering plastic pipe, and the surface can be smooth, so that the flow resistance of the fluid can be greatly reduced, the energy is saved, and the cost is reduced.
3. The polar plate and the membrane electrode are simple to process, and the battery is convenient to assemble.
The present invention will be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings and specific embodiments.
FIG. 1 is a schematic structural view of a flow guide plate for guiding an oxidant according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a flow guide polar plate for guiding fuel hydrogen according to the present invention;
fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.
Example 1
As shown in fig. 1, 2 and 3, an improved fuel cell includes six membrane electrodes 1, seven flow guide plates 2, four external fluid channels 3, four connecting rods (not shown), a set of cooling unit (not shown), and a set of monitoring unit (not shown), wherein each membrane electrode 1 is formed by attaching catalysts and porous carbon paper to two sides of a proton exchange membrane, each flow guide plate 2 is provided with a flow guide groove 21, each external fluid channel 3 includes two external fluid inlet channels 31 and two external fluid outlet channels 32, one end surface of each flow guide plate 2 is provided with an inlet hole 22, one end of the inlet hole is communicated with the external fluid inlet channel 31 through a branch pipe 23, the other end of the inlet hole is communicated with the flow guide groove 21, the other end surface of each flow guide plate 2 is provided with an outlet hole 24, one end of the outlet hole is communicated with the external fluid outlet channel 32 through the branch pipe 23, the other end is communicated with the diversion trench 21; two guide polar plates 2 clamp a membrane electrode 1 to form a cell unit, and the cell units are connected in series through connecting rods and are connected into a cooling unit and a monitoring unit to form the fuel cell. In this embodiment, the two external inlet fluid channels 31 are respectively an external inlet fuel hydrogen channel and an external inlet oxidant air channel; the two external fluid outlet channels 32 are respectively an external fuel hydrogen outlet channel and an external oxidant air outlet channel; the external fluid channel is made of engineering plastic pipes. The cooling water passage of this embodiment is provided inside the battery (not shown).
Example 2
Referring to fig. 1, 2 and 3, an improved fuel cell includes six membrane electrodes 1, seven flow guide plates 2, six external fluid channels 3 (two not shown), four connecting rods (not shown), a set of cooling unit (not shown), and a set of monitoring unit (not shown), each membrane electrode 1 is formed by attaching catalyst and porous carbon paper to both sides of a proton exchange membrane, each flow guide plate 2 is provided with a flow guide slot 21, each external fluid channel 3 includes three external fluid channels 31 and three external fluid channels 32, one end surface of each flow guide plate 2 is provided with an inflow hole 22, one end of the inflow hole is communicated with the external fluid channels 31 through a branch pipe 23, the other end of the inflow hole is communicated with the flow guide slot 21, the other end surface of each flow guide plate 2 is provided with an outflow hole 24, one end of the outflow hole is communicated with the external fluid channels 32 through the branch pipe 23, the other end is communicated with the diversion trench 21; two guide polar plates 2 clamp a membrane electrode 1 to form a cell unit, and the cell units are connected in series through connecting rods and are connected into a cooling unit and a monitoring unit to form the fuel cell. In this embodiment, the three external inlet fluid channels 31 are respectively an external inlet fuel hydrogen channel, an external inlet oxidant air channel and an external inlet cooling water channel; the three external fluid outlet channels 32 are respectively an external fuel hydrogen outlet channel, an external oxidant air outlet channel and an external cooling water outlet channel; the external fluid channel is made of stainless steel pipes.
Example 3
Referring to fig. 1, 2 and 3, an improved fuel cell includes a membrane electrode 1, two flow guide plates 2, six external fluid channels 3 (two not shown), two connecting rods (not shown), a set of cooling unit (not shown), and a set of monitoring unit (not shown), wherein each membrane electrode 1 is formed by attaching catalysts and porous carbon paper to two sides of a proton exchange membrane, each flow guide plate 2 is provided with a flow guide slot 21, each external fluid channel 3 includes three external fluid channels 31 and three external fluid channels 32, one end surface of each flow guide plate 2 is provided with an inflow hole 22, one end of the inflow hole is communicated with the external fluid channels 31 through a branch pipe 23, the other end of the inflow hole is communicated with the flow guide slot 21, the other end surface of each flow guide plate 2 is provided with an outflow hole 24, one end of the outflow hole is communicated with the external fluid channels 32 through the branch pipe 23, the other end is communicated with the diversion trench 21; two guide polar plates 2 clamp a membrane electrode 1 and are connected in series through a connecting rod, and then the membrane electrode is connected with a cooling unit and a monitoring unit to form the fuel cell. In this embodiment, the three external inlet fluid channels 31 are respectively an external inlet fuel hydrogen channel, an external inlet oxidant air channel and an external inlet cooling water channel; the three external fluid outlet channels 32 are respectively an external fuel hydrogen outlet channel, an external oxidant air outlet channel and an external cooling water outlet channel; the external fluid channel is made of engineering plastic pipes.
Example 4
Referring to fig. 1, 2 and 3, an improved fuel cell includes six membrane electrodes 1, seven flow guide plates 2, an external fluid channel 3, four connecting rods (not shown), a set of cooling unit (not shown), and a set of monitoring unit (not shown), wherein each membrane electrode 1 is formed by attaching catalysts and porous carbon paper to two sides of a proton exchange membrane, each flow guide plate 2 is provided with a flow guide groove 21, one external fluid channel 3 is an external oxidant inlet channel 31, the external oxidant inlet channel is made of stainless steel pipe, one end surface of each flow guide plate 2 is provided with an inflow hole 22, one end of the inflow hole is communicated with the external oxidant inlet channel 31 through a branch pipe 23, the other end of the inflow hole is communicated with the flow guide groove 21, the other end surface of each flow guide plate 2 is provided with an outflow hole 24, one end of the outflow hole is communicated with the flow guide groove 21, the other end is communicated with the atmosphere through a branch pipe 23; two guide polar plates 2 clamp a membrane electrode 1 to form a cell unit, and the cell units are connected in series through connecting rods and are connected into a cooling unit and a monitoring unit to form the fuel cell. In the present embodiment, the fuel hydrogen passage and the cooling water passage are provided inside the cell.
Claims (7)
1. An improved fuel cell comprises at least one membrane electrode, at least two flow guide polar plates, at least one connecting rod, a cooling unit and a monitoring unit, wherein each membrane electrode is formed by attaching catalysts and porous carbon paper to two sides of a proton exchange membrane; and clamping a membrane electrode by the two flow guide polar plates to form a battery unit, connecting the battery units together in series through connecting rods, and connecting the battery units into the cooling unit and the monitoring unit to form the fuel cell.
2. An improved fuel cell according to claim 1, wherein said external inlet fluid passageways comprise external inlet fluid passageways.
3. An improved fuel cell according to claim 1, wherein said external fluid passageways further comprise external outlet fluid passageways communicating with the outlet port via a manifold.
4. An improved fuel cell according to claim 1, wherein said peripheral fluid passageways comprise peripheral fuel hydrogen passageways.
5. An improved fuel cell according to claim 1 or 4, wherein said peripheral fluid passages further comprise peripheral oxidant passages.
6. An improved fuel cell according to claim 5, wherein said peripheral fluid passageways further comprise peripheral cooling water passageways.
7. An improved fuel cell according to claim 1, wherein said peripheral fluid passageways are made of engineering plastic or stainless steel tubing.
Priority Applications (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CN01239263U CN2476106Y (en) | 2001-05-11 | 2001-05-11 | Improved fuel battery |
Applications Claiming Priority (1)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CN01239263U CN2476106Y (en) | 2001-05-11 | 2001-05-11 | Improved fuel battery |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
|---|---|
| CN2476106Y true CN2476106Y (en) | 2002-02-06 |
Family
ID=33651737
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CN01239263U Expired - Lifetime CN2476106Y (en) | 2001-05-11 | 2001-05-11 | Improved fuel battery |
Country Status (1)
| Country | Link |
|---|---|
| CN (1) | CN2476106Y (en) |
Cited By (2)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN100444440C (en) * | 2003-12-29 | 2008-12-17 | 上海神力科技有限公司 | A double fuel cell power system capable of parallel working |
| CN111357142A (en) * | 2017-11-15 | 2020-06-30 | 奥迪股份公司 | Fuel cell apparatus |
-
2001
- 2001-05-11 CN CN01239263U patent/CN2476106Y/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
Cited By (3)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN100444440C (en) * | 2003-12-29 | 2008-12-17 | 上海神力科技有限公司 | A double fuel cell power system capable of parallel working |
| CN111357142A (en) * | 2017-11-15 | 2020-06-30 | 奥迪股份公司 | Fuel cell apparatus |
| US20200280076A1 (en) * | 2017-11-15 | 2020-09-03 | Audi Ag | Fuel cell device |
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Legal Events
| Date | Code | Title | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| C14 | Grant of patent or utility model | ||
| GR01 | Patent grant | ||
| AV01 | Patent right actively abandoned |
Effective date of abandoning: 20050323 |
|
| C25 | Abandonment of patent right or utility model to avoid double patenting |