Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi Chemical Company, Ltd.

New Energy Development Organization

Kazuo Iwamoto

Tatsuo Horiba

Kohki Tamura

Kazunori Fujita

Hidejiro Kawana

Tomoichi Kamo

Seiji Takeuchi

Teruo Kumagai

Kunko Kitami

Masato Takeuchi

Katsuya Ebara

Toshiki Kahara

Hideo Okada

Yoshio Iwase

Kouichi Mitsugi

Kouki Tamura

A fuel cell electrode having a catalyst layer comprising electroconductive particles carrying a catalytically active component and a binder on a water-repellent baked plate comprising a carbon paper comprising carbon fiber and an organic binder and polytetrafluoroethylene infiltrated into voids of said carbon paper, characterized in that the carbon fiber of said baked plate has at least 20 cutting edges per square millimeter, and said polytetrafluoroethylene is infiltrated into at least one of said cutting edges to render the plate flexible.

Flexible, water-repellent baked carbon plate, its production, fuel cell

In a fuel cell having a fuel electrode, an oxidant electrode, and an electrolyte which is located between both the electrodes, a methanol concentration control device is disposed, at a pipe which supplies the fuel to the fuel cell for controlling the amount of the methanol in the pipe by detecting the open-circuit voltage of the unit cell or the open-circuit potential of the oxidant cell at the methanol concentration control device.

Fuel cell comprising a device for detecting the concentration of methanol

A molten carbonate fuel cell using molten carbonate as an electrolyte, carbonate ions as electric conductor, and feeding a hydrogen-enriched gas to the anode and a mixture of air and carbon dioxide gas to the cathode has its output fall by degrees with operation. It is surmised that one of the causes of this problem is ascribable to the fact that the molten carbonate electrolyte moves during operation to destroy equilibrium in the boundary between the electrolyte and electrodes. After studies for measures against the problem, the inventor found that the output of a fuel cell which has fallen can be improved by shutting off part or all of the raaction gases or reducing their feed for a while, and then restoring. The purpose of the present invention is to offer a high-performance stable-output molten carbonate fuel cell and its operation control method, incorporating the above findings in its operation control system.

Molten carbonate fuel cell, and its operation control method

This invention is a fuel element for liquid fuel cell characterized in that a liquid fuel is rendered to assume a non-fluidized state by either physical means or chemical means, and is returned back to the initial liquid fuel at any time by physical means or chemical means.

Fuel element for liquid fuel cell and a liquid fuel cell

A methanol fuel cell with an electrolyte ion exchange membrane integrated with an oxidizer electrode containing water-repellent particles on one side of the membrane and with a hydrophilic fuel electrode containing no water-repellent particles on the other side thereof and with less contact resistance between the ion exchange membrane and the electrodes and a three-phase boundary readily formable in the oxidizer electrode.

Fuel cell

A methanol fuel cell wherein a positive electrode and a negative electrode are disposed in contact with a solid film which exhibits a hydrogen ion- and/or hydronium ion-conductivity. The methanol permeability coefficient of the solid film of the methanol fuel cell is at most 1.times.10.sup.-6 mol/(mol/l).min.cm.sup.2.

Methanol fuel cell

In a battery of the structure laminated with plural cells a frame of the battery is divided into three equal spaces by barriers of insulating material. One of the spaces is a cathode active material chamber, another of the spaces is an anode active material, and the other is an electrolyte chamber. Cathode and anode plates are attached to one ends of the respective cathode active material and electrolyte chambers. The anode active material chamber is divided at one end thereof by an insulating partition plate formed integral with the frame. The plural frames attached with these anode and cathode plates are accumulated to form plural unit cells in such a manner that the chamber for the electrolyte of the frame of certain layer is disposed between the chambers for two materials different in the fore and aft layers from each other.

Growing community of inventors

Hitachi, Japan

Kazuo Iwamoto