Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Panasonic Corporation

Matushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Nobuhiro Hase

Hideo Ohara

Hiroki Kusakabe

Shinsuke Takeguchi

Kazuhito Hatoh

Yoshiaki Yamamoto

Susumu Kobayashi

Masayo Sugou, Legal Representative

Toshihiro Matsumoto

Teruhisa Kanbara

Soichi Shibata

Tatsuto Yamazaki

Junji Niikura

Takayuki Urata

Katsuzou Kokawa

Masayo Sugou

Satoru Fujii

Eiichi Yasumoto

Yoshihiro Bessho

Hisaaki Gyoten

Takeshi Tomizawa

Yoshifumi Nakamura

Masao Yamamoto

Hiroaki Takezawa

Satoru Yuhaku

Minehiro Itagaki

Masato Hosaka

Kazufumi Nishida

Hideo Kasahara

Tatsuto (deceased) Yamazaki

The durability of a polymer electrolyte fuel cell is very significantly improved by using a tightening pressure of about 2 to 4 kgf/cmof area of electrode; or a tightening pressure of about 4 to 8 kgf/cmof contact area between electrode and separator plate; or by selecting a value not exceeding about 1.5 mS/cmfor the short-circuit conductivity attributed to the DC resistance component in each unit cell; or by selecting a value not exceeding about 3 mA/cmfor the hydrogen leak current per area of electrode of each MEA. Further, in a method of manufacturing or an inspection method for a polymer electrolyte fuel cell stack, fuel cells having high durability can be efficiently manufactured by removing such MEAs or unit cells using such MEAs or such cell stacks having short-circuit conductivity values and/or hydrogen leak current values exceeding predetermined values, respectively.

Polymer electrolyte fuel cell provided with a tightening pressure

A decrease in voltage in a polymer electrolyte fuel cell comprising stack of unit cells caused by the temperature difference between the cells located at the ends and the other cells due to a differential in heat dissipation from end plates is prevented by controlling the cooling temperature of the cells closest to the end plates of the fuel cell without affecting the output voltage of the cells in the middle by not including a coolant flow channel in the conductive separator plate between at least one of the end plates and the unit cell located closest to the one of the end plates.

Polymer electrolyte fuel cell

A polymer electrolyte fuel cell including a plurality of membrane electrode assemblies and a plurality of conductive separators, wherein the plurality of conductive separators include at least one separator comprising: a fuel gas inlet-side manifold aperture; a fuel gas outlet-side manifold aperture; a gas flow channel for fuel gas formed on an anode-side of the separator; an inlet-side through hole and an outlet-side through hole penetrating the separator which are formed at an inlet-side end and an outlet-side end of the gas flow channel for fuel gas; and an inlet-side connection groove and an outlet-side connection groove for connecting the inlet-side and outlet-side through holes with the fuel gas inlet-side manifold aperture and the fuel gas outlet-side manifold aperture, respectively, which are formed on a cathode-side of the separator.

A polymer electrolyte fuel cell of the present invention includes conductive separator plates comprising molded plates of a composition comprising a binder, conductive carbon particles whose average particle diameter is not less than 50 &#x3bc;m and not more than &#x2153; of the thickness of the thinnest portion of the conductive separator plate, and at least one of conductive carbon fine particles and micro-diameter carbon fibers. The separator plates do not require conventional cutting processes for gas flow channels, etc., and can be easily mass produced by injection molding and achieve a reduction in the cost.

Polymer electrolyte type fuel cell

A highly reliable polymer electrolyte fuel cell includes an anode-side separator plate and a cathode-side separator plate that are provided with an anode-side sealing member and a cathode-side sealing member, respectively. The anode-side and cathode-side sealing members seal the cell in cooperation with a polymer electrolyte membrane at sealing parts where the anode-side and cathode-side sealing members are opposed to each other, thereby preventing gas from leaking out of gas flow channels. One of the anode-side and cathode-side sealing members has a pointed rib that comes in contact with the sealing parts in a linear manner, and the other sealing member comes in contact with the sealing parts surface to surface.

Polymer electrolyte fuel cell and method for operation thereof

A polymer electrolyte fuel cell of the present invention includes a hydrogen ion-conductive polymer electrolyte membrane, an anode and a cathode sandwiching the hydrogen ion-conductive polymer electrolyte membrane, an anode-side conductive separator plate having a gas flow channel for supplying a fuel gas to the anode, and a cathode-side conductive separator plate having a gas flow channel for supplying an oxidant gas to the cathode. Each of the anode-side conductive separator plate and the cathode-side conductive separator plate is rectangle in shape and has an oxidant gas manifold aperture for an inlet arranged on one short side thereof, an oxidant gas manifold aperture for an outlet arranged on the other short side thereof, a fuel gas manifold aperture for an inlet and a fuel gas manifold aperture for an outlet arranged on different longitudinal sides thereof, and a cooling water manifold aperture for an inlet and a cooling water manifold aperture for an outlet arranged on the different longitudinal sides thereof. The respective fuel gas manifold apertures are disposed opposite to the cooling water manifold apertures. The oxidant gas manifold apertures, the fuel gas manifold apertures, and the cooling water manifold apertures have openings of different shapes.

A polymer electrolyte fuel cell may include a stack of unit cells that each have a hydrogen-ion conductive polymer electrolyte membrane and an anode and a cathode sandwiching the polymer electrolyte membrane. Separators are provided between each two adjacent unit cells and include channels for supplying fuel and oxidant gas to the anode and the cathode. Anode side and cathode side current collector plates sandwich the stack of unit cells. The anode side current collector plate has a terminal section for a power output coupling and is located closer to an inlet-side manifold than to an outlet-side manifold for the fuel gas. The cathode side current collector plate has a terminal section for a power output coupling and is located closer to an inlet-side manifold than to an outlet-side manifold for the oxidant gas.

Polymer electrolyte fuel cell having improved current collector plates and method of forming the same

A separator plate for a polymer electrolyte fuel cell having excellent conductivity and moldability is provided. The separator plate is injection molded, using different compounds for molding the portion that requires conductivity and the portion that does not require conductivity. The separator plate comprises: an electronic conductor portion containing conductive carbon; and an insulating portion surrounding the electronic conductor portion. The electronic conductor portion has a first flow channel of a gas or cooling water on one side and has a second flow channel of a gas or cooling water on the other side.

Separator plate for polymer electrolyte fuel cell and polymer electrolyte fuel cell using the same

A fuel cell including a cell stack including plural electrically conductive separator plates and MEAs (electrolyte membrane-electrode assemblies) inserted among the separator plates. The fuel cell further includes gas communication grooves, where the gas communication grooves on one main surface of each separator plate are positioned to correspond to the ribs on the other main surface thereof, whereby thin wall portions in the separator plate can be avoided as much as possible, thereby to solve above described problems.

High-polymer electrolyte fuel cell

A fuel cell having high operation performance and reliability is provided by optimizing the shape and properties of a gas diffusion layer and the dimensions of a gas flow channel. The fuel cell evenly supplies a reaction gas to the catalyst of a catalyst layer and promptly discharges excessive water generated therein. The gas diffusion layer of the MEA comprises a first section having a surface A coming in direct contact with a separator plate and a second section having a surface B facing the gas flow channel of the separator plate. The porosity of the first section is lower than the porosity of the second section, and the second section protrudes into the gas flow channel, which has sufficient width and depth for the protrusion of the gas diffusion layer, and the width of a rib formed by the gas flow channel is sufficiently narrow.

Fuel cell

A conductive separator plate for a polymer electrolyte fuel cell is disclosed which includes a cell stack and a plurality of conductive separator plates, the conductive separator plates being formed of a carbon powder and a binder, the conductive separator plates having a main portion which is raised from a peripheral portion surrounding the main portion, the main portion being in contact with an anode or cathode of the fuel cell and being provided with a gas flow path for supplying a fuel gas to the anode or a gas flow path for supplying an oxidant gas to the cathode.

Polymer electrolyte fuel cell and conductive separator plate thereof

The present invention relates to a polymer electrolyte fuel cell comprising: an electrolyte membrane-electrode assembly including an anode, a cathode and a polymer electrolyte membrane interposed therebetween; an anode-side conductive separator plate having a gas flow channel for supplying a fuel gas to the anode; and a cathode-side conductive separator plate having a gas flow channel for supplying an oxidant gas to the cathode. A conductive separator plate made of carbon has poor wettability with water. This has posed the disadvantage that variations in performance are induced by nonuniform gas distribution among cells due to the accumulation of product water or humidifying water in the gas flow channel on the surface of the separator plate. The present invention employs a conductive separator plate comprising a conductive carbon having a hydrophilic functional group, at least in a portion of the gas flow channels, thereby preventing water from accumulating in the gas flow channels.

Polymer electrolyte fuel cell and method of manufacturing the same

The invention relates to fuel cell end plates comprising a resin-dominant material, preferably made by injection molding to reduce their cost and weight and increase their corrosion resistance.

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Mino, Japan

Nobuhiro Hase