JP5239960B2 - Fuel cell - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a structure of a cell assembly of a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell.

  An assembly of one cell of a solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell (hereinafter referred to as “cell assembly”) has conventionally been made by combining a membrane electrode assembly (also referred to as “MEA” or “MEGA”) with a separator assembly (from both sides) (Hereinafter referred to as “separator assembly”) and bonded by lamination or brazing.

  However, the structure in which the separator assembly is bonded to the membrane electrode assembly by laminating or brazing is insufficient in terms of reducing the apparatus cost and reducing the weight, and further reduction in cost and weight is desired by further efforts.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-142000 JP 2008-123883 A

  An object of the present invention is to provide a technique for reducing the cost and weight of a device by further devising the structure of a cell assembly of a fuel cell.

  SUMMARY An advantage of some aspects of the invention is to solve at least a part of the problems described above, and the invention can be implemented as the following forms or application examples.

[Application Example 1]
A cell assembly of a fuel cell,
A membrane electrode assembly formed by sequentially laminating a catalyst electrode layer, a gas diffusion layer, and a gas channel on both sides of a solid polymer electrolyte membrane, and the gas channel on both sides of the membrane electrode assembly A laminate comprising: first and second separators stacked to block gas flowing through the second separator; and a third separator for forming a cooling medium flow path stacked on the upper surface of the second separator. With
On the surface of the laminate on which the third separator is laminated, the cooling medium flow path formed by the third separator, the refrigerant supply / discharge hole with respect to the cooling medium flow path, and the gas flow path By providing a gasket so as to cover a side wall of the manifold hole without covering a plurality of manifold holes and gas guide grooves for performing supply and discharge of gas, the membrane electrode assembly, and the first A cell assembly of a fuel cell, wherein the third separator and the third separator are integrated.
According to the cell assembly of the fuel cell of Application Example 1, it is possible to eliminate the operation of joining the separator assembly to the membrane electrode assembly by lamination or brazing as in the prior art, and the membrane electrode assembly and the first to third components. The cell assembly of the fuel cell using the separator can be made into an integrated structure, and it is possible to reduce the cost and weight.

  The present invention can be realized in various forms, for example, various types of fuel cell assembly, a fuel cell and a fuel cell stack using the cell assembly, a fuel cell system using the fuel cell, and the like. It can be realized in the form.

1 is a schematic plan view showing a cell assembly 10 of a fuel cell as a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2A is a schematic cross-sectional view of FIG. 1, FIG. 2A is a cross-sectional view taken along line AA in FIG. 1, and FIG. It is explanatory drawing which shows the state which stacked several cell assemblies of the fuel cell of the Example. It is explanatory drawing which shows the modification of the cell assembly of the fuel ionization of 1st Example. FIG. 6 is a schematic plan view showing a cell assembly 10A of a fuel cell as a second embodiment of the present invention.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in the following order based on examples.
A. First embodiment:
B. Second embodiment:

A. First embodiment:
FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view showing a cell assembly 10 of a fuel cell as a first embodiment of the present invention. In the drawing, a region indicated by cross-hatching indicates a gasket 100 provided on the uppermost surface of the cell assembly 10, and a line indicated by a broken line is a first that passes through the gas manifold holes 12 and 13 and the gas guide grooves 14 and 15. Gas, the second gas passing through the gas manifold holes 22 and 23 and the comb-shaped gas guide grooves 24 and 25, and the refrigerant passing through the refrigerant manifold holes 32 and 33 and the refrigerant flow path 34, respectively. A shield line for shielding each other is shown.

  2 is a schematic cross-sectional view of FIG. 1, FIG. 2 (A) shows the AA cross section of FIG. 1, and FIG. 2 (B) shows the BB cross section of FIG. 1.

  As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, this cell assembly 10 has gas on both sides of a solid polymer electrolyte membrane (hereinafter simply referred to as “electrolyte membrane”) 210 having catalyst electrode layers laminated on both sides. Diffusion layers 220 and 230, gas flow paths 240 and 250, and separators 260 and 270 are stacked, and a laminate 200 is formed by stacking the rectifying separator 280 in the refrigerant flow path 34 on the upper surface of the separator 260. Then, on the upper surface of the laminate 200, the refrigerant flow path 34 including the rectifying separator 280, the refrigerant manifold holes 32 and 33, the gas manifold holes 12 and 13 corresponding to the first gas, and the gas guide grooves 14 and 15 and the side walls of the manifold holes 12, 13, 22, 23, 32, and 34 except for the gas manifold holes 22 and 23 and the comb-shaped gas guide grooves 24 and 25 corresponding to the second gas. Thus, the gasket is provided in close contact so as to cover it. A seal portion 110 is provided on the upper surface of the gasket 100 along the seal line.

  FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing a state in which a plurality of cell assemblies of the fuel cell of the embodiment are stacked. As shown in FIG. 3, when the plurality of cell assemblies are stacked, the seal portion 110 is in intimate contact with the lower separator 270, so that the first gas, the second gas, The refrigerant can be sealed with each other.

  As described above, the cell assembly 10 of the fuel cell according to the present embodiment does not require a process of joining the electrode assembly and the gas flow path using the laminate or the brazing material unlike the conventional cell assembly, and is low in cost. And weight reduction can be achieved.

  Note that the first embodiment can be modified to a mode described below. FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing a modification of the fuel ionization cell assembly of the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 4A, a portion of the separator 270 further outside the manifold may be pressed out of the lowermost separator 270, or may be deformed by caulking. By doing in this way, the rigidity of a cell assembly can be improved and the sealing performance by a gasket can be improved.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 4B, the seal portion provided on the outer peripheral portion of the manifold may be provided with a bottom dimension portion serving as a base to provide a seal portion. By doing so, the sealing performance when the cell assemblies are stacked can be further improved.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 4C, the separator 260 may be provided up to the outer periphery of the manifold. By combining with the separator 270, the ease of manufacturing is improved. On the other hand, the separator 270 may be provided only inside the manifold, like the separator 260.

  In the first embodiment and the modification, the separator 260 and the refrigerant rectifying separator 280 have been described as separate structures. However, an integrated structure separator may be used.

B. Second embodiment:
FIG. 5 is a schematic plan view showing a cell assembly 10A of a fuel cell as a second embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the cell assembly 10 of the fuel cell according to the first embodiment is provided with comb-like gas guide grooves 24 and 25 in the upper and lower gas manifold holes 22 and 23. FIG. 5 shows an example in which comb teeth 36, 38 for refrigerant guidance are provided. Like the cell assembly 10A of the present embodiment shown in FIG. 5, comb-shaped guide grooves and refrigerant guidance combs are shown. Teeth can be omitted. Since the AA sectional view is substantially the same as the BB sectional view shown in FIG. 2B of the first embodiment, the illustration and description are omitted.

  In the second embodiment, as in the case of the cell assembly of the first embodiment, there is no need for a step of bonding to the electrode assembly and the gas flow path using a laminate or a brazing material as in the conventional cell assembly. Cost and weight can be reduced. Further, the modification described with reference to FIG. 4 can be applied.

  In addition, this invention is not restricted to said Example and embodiment, In the range which does not deviate from the summary, it is possible to implement in various aspects.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Cell assembly 10A ... Cell assembly 12, 13 ... Gas manifold hole 14, 15 ... Gas guide groove 22, 23 ... Gas manifold hole 24, 25 ... Gas guide groove 32, 33 ... Refrigerant manifold hole 34 ... Refrigerant flow path 36, 38 ... comb teeth 100 ... gasket 110 ... seal part 200 ... laminate 210 ... electrolyte membrane 220, 230 ... gas diffusion layer 240, 250 ... gas flow path 260 ... separator 270 ... separator 280 ... separator

Claims (1)

A cell assembly of a fuel cell,
A membrane electrode assembly formed by sequentially laminating a catalyst electrode layer, a gas diffusion layer, and a gas channel on both sides of a solid polymer electrolyte membrane, and the gas channel on both sides of the membrane electrode assembly A laminate comprising: first and second separators stacked to block gas flowing through the second separator; and a third separator for forming a cooling medium flow path stacked on the upper surface of the second separator. With
On the surface of the laminate on which the third separator is laminated, the cooling medium flow path formed by the third separator, the refrigerant supply / discharge hole with respect to the cooling medium flow path, and the gas flow path By providing a gasket so as to cover a side wall of the manifold hole without covering a plurality of manifold holes and gas guide grooves for performing supply and discharge of gas, the membrane electrode assembly, and the first A cell assembly of a fuel cell, wherein the third separator and the third separator are integrated.

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