Honda Motor Co., Ltd.

Honda Giken Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha

Honda Giken Kabushiki Kaisha

Masaru Oda

Narutoshi Sugita

Masaaki Sakano

Yasuhiro Watanabe

Hideaki Kikuchi

Norimasa Kawagoe

Masahiro Mohri

Takashi Kosaka

Masaharu Suzuki

Kentaro Nagoshi

Seiji Sugiura

Teruyuki Ohtani

Takaaki Shikano

Naoyuki Enjoji

Yoshinori Wariishi

Chikara Iwasawa

Hidetada Kojima

Takuma Yamawaki

Hiroaki Ohta

Shuhei Goto

Yosuke Fujii

Nagayuki Kanaoka

Hiroshi Sohma

Nobuhiro Saito

Takeshi Ushio

Yasunori Kotani

Ichiro Baba

Daisuke Okonogi

Hideo Okamoto

Yoshihito Kimura

Akihiro Matsui

Satoshi Tanimoto

Kenichi Tanaka

Satoshi Aoki

Ryugo Suzuki

Masahiro Ise

Yuji Asano

Keisuke Suda

Takaaki Mitsuoka

Shunsuke Itami

Keiko Yamazaki

Shohei Toyota

Keisuke Ando

Akihiro Nonogaki

Ryohei Ishimaru

Hiroto Chiba

Syuji Sato

Koji Moriyama

Tetsuhiro Takehara

Takeshi Banba

Teruyuki Otani

A method of selecting a thermoplastic-resin adhesive provided so as to be exposed to a fluid flow path of a power generation cell includes a load application step, an exposing step, a measurement step, and a selecting step. In the load application step, a compressive load is applied to a laminate body in a laminating direction thereof, the laminate body being formed by sandwiching an adhesive between a first resin film and a second resin film. In the exposing step, the laminate body is exposed to an environment heated to a predetermined temperature and humidified to a predetermined humidity. In the measurement step, a flow amount of the adhesive during the exposing step is measured. In the selecting step, the adhesive having the flow amount equal to or less than a predetermined amount is selected as an adhesive used for the power generation cell.

Method of selecting adhesive and power generation cell

A fuel cell includes: an electrolyte membrane-electrode structure in which electrodes are provided on both surfaces of an electrolyte membrane and a frame member is joined to the outer peripheral portion of the electrolyte membrane; and a pair of separators for sandwiching the electrolyte membrane-electrode structure, wherein an overlapping portion of the outer peripheral portion of the electrode and the inner peripheral portion of the frame member is disposed in a flow field section in which flow field grooves for allowing a reactant gas to flow along the electrode surface of the electrolyte membrane-electrode structure are formed, and is disposed so as not to extend into buffers between the flow field section and passages.

Fuel cell

A power generation cell includes a resin-framed electrolyte membrane electrode assembly. The cathode of the resin-framed membrane electrode assembly has a larger surface dimension than the anode. An outer peripheral portion of the anode is positioned between a first buffer and a fuel gas flow field. An outer peripheral portion of the cathode is positioned between the resin frame member and the second buffer.

Power generation cell and resin-framed membrane electrode assembly

A fuel cell stack is comprised of a plurality of power generating units which are stacked along the horizontal direction. An oxidant gas inlet port and a fuel gas inlet port are provided in an upper portion of one of the power generating units, and an oxidant gas outlet port and a fuel gas outlet port are provided in the lower portion of the power generating unit. A refrigerant inlet port and a refrigerant outlet port are formed in each of the left and right portions of the power generating unit.

Fuel cell stack

A fuel cell is formed by sandwiching a membrane electrode assembly between a first separator and a second separator. The membrane electrode assembly includes a cathode, an anode, and a solid polymer electrolyte membrane interposed between the cathode and the anode. In the membrane electrode assembly, a catalyst area of an electrode catalyst layer of the cathode and an electrode catalyst layer of the anode terminates at a position spaced upwardly from lower ends of an oxygen-containing gas flow field and a fuel gas flow field.

Solid polymer electrolyte fuel cell

A fuel cell includes a membrane electrode assembly, a separator, a fluid channel, a fluid manifold, a plurality of protruding elastic members, and a plurality of sealing members. A fluid is to flow in a stacking direction through the fluid manifold. A connection channel is provided between the plurality of protruding elastic members to connect the fluid channel and the fluid manifold. The plurality of sealing members are provided adjacent to the plurality of protruding elastic members in the stacking direction and extend in a direction to cross a flow direction in which the fluid flows along the connection channel. Each of the plurality of protruding elastic members has overlapping regions that overlap the plurality of sealing members as seen from the stacking direction. The overlapping regions are separated from each other in the flow direction.

Disclosed is a fuel cell in which an electrolyte membrane-electrode structure is held between the first separator and a second separator. The electrolyte membrane-electrode structure comprises a solid polymer electrolyte membrane, a cathode-side electrode and an anode-side electrode. An end portion of the solid polymer electrolyte membrane projects outwardly beyond end portions of gas diffusion layers, and the both surfaces of the end portion of the solid polymer electrolyte membrane are held between the first protective film and a second protective film. The thickness of the first protective film is set to be thinner than the thickness of the second protective film.

Fuel cell with an electrolyte membrane and gas diffusion layers

A fuel cell according to the present invention includes a power generation unit. The power generation unit is formed by stacking a first metal separator, a first membrane electrode assembly, a second metal separator, a second membrane electrode assembly, and a third metal separator. The number of flow grooves in a first oxygen-containing gas flow field is different from the number of flow grooves in a second oxygen-containing gas flow field. The first oxygen-containing gas flow field and the second oxygen-containing gas flow field have the same length, and the flow grooves in the first oxygen-containing gas flow field and the flow grooves in the second oxygen-containing gas flow field have the same depth.

Fuel cell separators capable of suppressing variation in pressure loss

A fuel cell includes a membrane electrode assembly and an anode side metal separator and a cathode side metal separator sandwiching the membrane electrode assembly. An oxygen-containing gas flows in an oxygen-containing gas flow field in a horizontal direction. A coolant flows in a coolant flow field in a vertical direction. The coolant flow field is connected to coolant supply passages and coolant discharge passages. The opening of one of the coolant supply passages and the opening of one of the coolant discharge passages are smaller than those of the other coolant supply passages and the other coolant discharge passages in cross section, respectively. Thus, the flow rate of the coolant supplied to an area near outlets of the oxygen-containing gas flow field and the fuel gas flow field become smaller than the flow rate of the coolant supplied to the other area.

A fuel cell includes a plurality of power generation cells each having a first separator. The separator has a fuel gas flow field. A fuel gas supply passage extends through one corner of the power generation cell in the stacking direction, a fuel gas flowing through the fuel gas supply passage into a fuel gas flow field. An inlet buffer is provided upstream of the fuel gas flow field. The fuel gas supply passage and the inlet buffer are connected by a plurality of inlet connection grooves. The inlet connection grooves are inclined from a direction perpendicular to a wall surface of the fuel gas supply passage toward the center of the fuel gas flow field.

A fuel cell stack includes stacked unit fuel cells provided between end holding members, each unit fuel cell having a membrane electrode assembly including an anode and a cathode. A pair of separators respectively contact the anode and the cathode, and respectively form reaction gas passages between one separator and the anode, and between the other separator and the cathode. For each reaction gas passage, a gas supply passage and a gas discharge passage are formed through the unit fuel cells and one end holding member so that they communicate with the reaction gas passage of each unit fuel cell, and a drainage passage is also formed through the unit fuel cells and one end holding member. An end of the drainage passage and an end of the gas discharge passage on the side of the other end holding member are joined to each other.

Fuel cell stack having gas discharge passage and drainage passage joined at one end of the stack

A fuel cell stack. A fuel cell stack, an example of the fuel cell stack, is configured by alternately overlaying first electricity generating units and second electricity generating units in the horizontal direction. The first electricity units are each provided with a first fuel gas flow path, a first oxidant gas flow path, a second fuel gas flow path, and a second oxidant gas flow path, and the flow paths are set to the same phase in the overlaying direction. The second electricity generating units are each provided with a first fuel gas flow path, a first oxidant gas flow path, a second fuel gas flow path, and a second oxidant gas flow path which are set to the same phase in the overlaying direction and are set to a phase different from the phase of the flow paths of the first electricity generating units.

There has been a problem that the cell units cannot bear the load exerted on the units while being stacked since a fuel cell stack including a refrigerant channel formed between cell units each having an even number of electrolyte/electrode structures (MEA) and metal separators which are alternated does not have any structure supporting the separators forming the refrigerant channel in a stacking direction. In order to solve the above problem, in each of a first power generating unit and a second power generating unit, projections formed at the buffer portions of the separators are disposed in the same positions in the stacking direction with the MEA interposed therebetween. Since between the first and second power generating units, the projections of the buffer portions are staggered, the projections of the first and second power generating units are thereby disposed in the same positions in the stacking direction.

A fuel cell includes a membrane electrode assembly and separators which are stacked. A fuel gas channel allows a fuel gas to flow along a surface of one of a pair of electrodes. An oxidant gas channel allows an oxidant gas to flow along a surface of another of a pair of electrodes. A channel width of the oxidant gas channel in a central portion of the oxidant gas channel in a channel width direction is larger than a channel width of the oxidant gas channel in both end portions of the oxidant gas channel in the channel width direction. A channel width of the fuel gas channel in a central portion of the fuel gas channel in a channel width direction is smaller than a channel width of the fuel gas channel in both end portions of the fuel gas channel in the channel width direction.

A first separator to which a resin film is joined beforehand is set in a cavity formed between a lower die and an upper die of an injection molding machine. At the time of die locking by moving the upper die toward the lower die, in the case where the total thickness of the resin film and the first separator is larger than a predetermined dimension, the resin film is pressed by the lower die or the upper die, and thus, the resin film is deformed by compression within its elastic deformation range.

Method of producing fuel cell

Growing community of inventors

Utsunomiya, Japan

Masaru Oda