Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Pansonic Corporation

Norihiko Kawabata

Toshihiro Matsumoto

Hiroki Kusakabe

Takashi Morimoto

Yoshiki Nagao

Mitsuo Yoshimura

Atsushi Murata

Kunihiro Ukai

Hidenobu Wakita

Kazuhito Hatoh

Shinsuke Takeguchi

Osamu Sakai

Yukimune Kani

Soichi Shibata

Jin Zhang

Shinji Yoshino

Masahisa Fujimoto

Shuji Ito

Yasuo Takebe

Hiroyuki Nagai

Kenji Arai

Tsutomu Kawashima

Reiko Taniguchi

Yasuhiro Ueyama

Masaki Nobuoka

Tsuneyuki Ejima

Takahiro Umeda

Shigeyuki Unoki

Tomohiro Kijima

Masatoshi Teranishi

Kazuya Usirokawa

Naotsugu Koashi

Kazuya Ushirokawa

Hiroaki Matsuoka

Naoko Yoshizawa

Haruko Kubota

Yusuke Ikeshima

An electrochemical hydrogen pump includes at least one hydrogen pump unit including an electrolyte membrane, an anode on one main surface of the electrolyte membrane, a cathode on the other main surface of the electrolyte membrane, an anode separator on the anode, and a cathode separator on the cathode, the at least one hydrogen pump unit transferring, to the cathode, hydrogen supplied to the anode and pressurizing the hydrogen, a first fixing member for preventing movement of the cathode separator in a direction in which the cathode separator is stacked, a first end plate on the anode separator at one end in the stacking direction, a second end plate on the cathode separator at the other end in the stacking direction, and a first gas flow channel through which hydrogen in the cathode is supplied to a first space between the second end plate and the cathode separator.

Electrochemical hydrogen pump

An electrochemical hydrogen pump includes: at least one hydrogen pump unit including an electrolyte membrane, an anode, a cathode, an anode separator, and a cathode separator; an anode end plate disposed on the anode separator positioned in a first end in a stacking direction, the first end is one end and the second end is another end; a cathode end plate disposed on the cathode separator positioned in a second end in the stacking direction; a fixing member that prevents at least members from the cathode end plate to the cathode separator positioned in the second end from moving in the stacking direction; a first gas flow channel through which hydrogen generated in the cathode is supplied to a first space disposed between the cathode end plate and the cathode separator positioned in the second end; and a first pressure transmitting member disposed in the first space.

The flow battery in an aspect of the present disclosure includes a first liquid containing a lithium ion and a first redox material, a first electrode in contact with the first liquid, a second electrode functioning as a counter electrode of the first electrode, an isolation unit that isolates the first electrode and the second electrode from each other, a first chamber, and a first circulation mechanism for circulating the first liquid between the first electrode and the first chamber, and in the flow battery, the first liquid is non-aqueous and the first circulation mechanism includes a magnetically driven pump.

Flow battery

Provided is an electromechanical hydrogen pump, including: (i) an electrolyte membrane; (ii) an anode electrode layer and an anode diffusion layer that are provided at one side of the electrolyte membrane; (iii) a cathode electrode layer and a cathode diffusion layer that are provided at the other side of the electrolyte membrane; (iv) an anode seal that has openings each surrounding the anode diffusion layer; (v) a cathode seal that has openings each surrounding the cathode diffusion layer; (vi) an anode separator that is placed on an outer side of the anode diffusion layer; and (vii) a cathode separator that is placed on an outer side of the cathode diffusion layer, wherein no spaces are provided between the anode diffusion layer and the anode seal or between the cathode diffusion layer and the cathode seal.

A gas-producing apparatus that produces hydrogen or oxygen, includes: an electrolysis cell that produces hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis of water; and a gas-liquid separation device that is connected to the electrolysis cell and that receives the water and the hydrogen or the oxygen, wherein the gas-liquid separation device includes a first chamber and a second chamber, the first chamber and the second chamber are separated by a partition wall, and a lower part of the first chamber and a lower part of the second chamber communicate with one another.

Gas-producing apparatus and gas-producing method

In a solid polymer fuel cell, destabilization of a voltage when an output state is changed is suppressed, and flow of a corrosion current through a cooling liquid in a cooling liquid manifold is reduced. The fuel cell is constructed by laminating a plurality of fuel battery cells, each including an MEA, a pair of separators, a frame that surrounds the periphery of the MEA, an anode, and a cathode, and a cooling liquid manifold that is formed by the frame. A flow channel of the cooling liquid manifold has a constant flow channel cross-sectional area, and a flow channel length of the cooling liquid manifold, which is included in one of the fuel battery cells, along a flow channel direction is longer than the thickness of the one fuel battery cell in a stacked direction.

Solid polymer fuel cell

A fuel cell of the present invention includes: four fastening bolts which extend in a stack direction of a stack structure so as to penetrate through openings of end plates and nuts which are disposed at both ends of the fastening bolts and can adjust fastening forces applied by the fastening bolts to the stack structure sandwiched between the end plates. Each fastening bolt is disposed in the vicinity of an intermediate point of each side of the end plate. In an electrode facing region of the end plate, one or more springs are disposed on a first straight line passing through two fastening bolts one or more springs are disposed on a second straight line passing through two fastening bolts one or more springs are disposed on a third straight line passing through two fastening bolts and one or more springs are disposed on a fourth straight line passing through two fastening bolts.

Fuel cell having a fastening structure including a specified configuration of elastic members

A cell stack of a fuel cell comprises a cell stack body including a cell stack structure including plural cells stacked together; an elastic member disposed at an end of the cell stack structure in a direction in which the plural cells are stacked, and a pair of end plates sandwiching the cell stack structure and the elastic member, and a fastener band extending to surround the cell stack body and to cover a pair of end surfaces and a pair of opposing side surfaces of the cell stack body, the fastener band including a first band engagement portion and a second band engagement portion at both end portions thereof, respectively, and the cell stack body is fastened by the fastener band by direct or indirect engagement between the first band engagement portion and the second band engagement portion.

Cell stack of fuel cell and method of fastening cell stack of fuel cell

An electrode-membrane-frame assembly for a polyelectrolyte fuel cell including of a membrane electrode assembly, a first frame body which has a separator-side surface on which a sealing member for sealing between the member and one separator and a membrane-side surface located on one surface of the peripheral edge portion of the membrane electrode assembly and is formed of a thermoplastic resin material, and a second frame body that has a separator-side surface on which a sealing member for sealing between the member and the other separator and a membrane-side surface located on the other surface of the peripheral edge portion of the membrane electrode assembly and is formed of a thermoplastic resin material and fitted to the first frame body holding the peripheral edge portion of the membrane electrode assembly between the second frame body and the first frame body.

Electrode-membrane-frame assembly for fuel cell, polyelectrolyte fuel cell and manufacturing method therefor

In a solid polyelectrolyte fuel cell, with a frame including a frame body main part placed along a peripheral edge portion of a membrane, a plurality of first retaining portions which are arrayed so as to protrude from an inner edge of the frame body main part and which retain the front surface side of the membrane, and a plurality of second retaining portions which are arrayed so as to protrude from the inner edge of the frame body main part and which retain the back surface side of the membrane, the first retaining portions and the second retaining portions are so arrayed that retaining positions of the membrane by the first retaining portions and retaining positions of the membrane by the second retaining portions are alternately placed. A plurality of front-surface side elastic members are placed on the front surface of the membrane between neighboring ones of the first retaining portions while a plurality of back-surface side elastic members are placed on the back surface of the membrane between neighboring ones of the second retaining portions.

Electrode-membrane-frame assembly for polyelectrolyte fuel cell, manufacturing method therefor, and polyelectrolyte fuel cell

A fuel cell separator and a fuel cell are provided that can improve uniformity in reaction gas flow rate and can prevent flooding due to excessive condensed water in passage grooves appropriately. A reaction gas passage region () of a separator () has a flow splitting region () having a passage groove group where the reaction gas is split, and one or more flow merge regions () having a recessed portion in which the reaction gas is mixed and connecting a plurality of flow splitting regions so that the passage groove group of the adjacent flow splitting regions () are connected to the recessed portion, and protrusions () vertically extend from a bottom face of the recessed portion and arranged in an island form. A pair of passage groove groups connected to the recessed portion of the flow merge region () is formed so as to have a greater number of grooves in the upstream passage groove group than the number of grooves of grooves in the downstream passage groove group. The recessed portion of the flow merge region () is defined, in a turn portion of a serpentine shaped reaction gas passage region (), by oblique boundaries between the recessed portion and a pair of passage groove groups which are connected to the recessed portion and by the outer end of the turn portion.

Serpentine fuel cell separator with protrusions and fuel cell including the same

In a manufacturing method for an electrode-membrane-frame assembly in a fuel cell, a first frame member and an electrolyte membrane member are arranged in a first mold for injection molding such that the edge of the electrolyte membrane member is arranged on the first frame member, a second mold is arranged to form a resin flow passage for forming a second frame member which is in contact with the first frame member by interposing the electrolyte membrane member, and a part of the edge of the electrolyte membrane member is pressed and fixed to the first frame member by a presser member mounted on the second mold and a molding resin material is injected into the resin flow passage to form a second frame member.

Polymer electrolyte fuel cell and manufacturing method for electrode-membrane-frame assembly

An MEA having an MEA body partC; a framemade of a plate-like thermoplastic resin; and gasketsformed on opposed surfaces of the frameso as to hold the framebetween. The gasketseach have an annular portionA that is annularly formed so as to extend along the inner periphery of the frameand elongated portionsBtoBthat extend from the annular portionA and come into contact with the side faces of an associated electrode layerC after passing over the inner periphery of the frameand a peripheral regionD of a polymer electrolyte membrane.

MEA, MEA manufacturing method, and polymer electrolyte fuel cell

Disclosed is a fuel cell stack which includes: a cell assembly formed of stacked unit cells, each composed of a membrane electrolyte assembly and separators which sandwich the membrane electrolyte assembly; a pair of collector plates A and B which sandwiches the cell assembly; a pair of end plates A and B which sandwiches the cell assembly and the collector plates; and an elastic member disposed between end plate A and collector plate A, wherein end plate A has a convexed portion and a concaved portion on a surface facing collector plate A, and the concaved portion of end plate A holds therein the elastic member, and a bottom surface of the concaved portion includes a second convexed portion and a second concaved portion.

Growing community of inventors

Osaka, Japan

Norihiko Kawabata