Panasonic Corporation

Toyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.

Other

Shinsuke Fukuda

Shinji Hamada

Mitsugu Takaki

Toyohiko Eto

Hideyuki Ueda

Takashi Asahina

Toshinobu Yokoyama

Noriyuki Fujioka

Naoto Arai

Kenji Kimura

Takashi Akiyama

Kohji Yuasa

Katsumi Kozu

Masato Onishi

Kenji Sato

Yasuhiro Takahashi

Shinichi Yuasa

Shinya Kimoto

Toshihiro Katsuta

Kieko Asakawa

Yukihiro Okada

Joji Kasugai

Satoshi Shibutani

Yoshiaki Ogata

Hiromi Kajiya

Yasunori Uchida

Akira Iwamura

Izumi Yamamura

Yoshihiro Tokutome

Yoshihiro Bouki

Rye Iwamura

In a fuel cell stack, a cell stack formed by laminating a membrane electrode assembly and a separator and sandwiching them from the both sides in the laminating direction with a pair of end plates is fastened by being tightened in the laminating direction with a first plate spring. The first plate spring includes two arm sections for pressing the pair of end plates and a connecting section connecting the arm sections, and has a C-shaped cross-section.

Fuel cell stack and fuel cell using the same

A fuel cell system including a fuel cell, constructed as an integrated stack comprising a laminate, produced by stacking a plurality of cells between two end plates, and a fuel supply device for supplying fuel to the fuel cell. In this fuel cell system, a plurality of individual fuel supply ports, for supplying fuel independently from the fuel supply device to each of the plurality of cells, are formed on the end plates, thus forming individual fuel supply channels that deliver fuel from the plurality of individual fuel supply ports to the fuel electrodes of the corresponding cells, respectively. This fuel cell system is compact, and enables equal supply of a predetermined quantity of fuel to each of the plurality of cells.

Fuel cell system that supplies to individual cells of a fuel cell stack independently

A cell includes an electrode plate group which is formed by laminating a positive electrode plate and a negative electrode plate with a separator interposed between them, and includes leads protruding toward directions opposite to each other from one side of the positive electrode plate and the negative electrode plate. Collectors are joined to the leads on both sides of the electrode plate group, and include connection protrusions formed so as to protrude outside. A bag-shape battery case containing the electrode plate group is joined to the collectors such that only the connection protrusions of the collectors are protruded outside the bag-shaped battery case. A battery module is constituted by placing a plurality of the cells, connected together, into a prismatic battery case.

Cell, connected-cell body, and battery module using the same

A direct methanol fuel cell of the present invention includes a unit cell having an electrolyte membrane, an anode on one surface of the electrolyte membrane, and a cathode on the other surface of the electrolyte membrane. The anode includes an anode catalyst layer and an anode diffusion layer. The anode catalyst layer is in contact with a surface of the electrolyte membrane. The anode diffusion layer is in contact with a surface of the anode catalyst layer opposite to the surface of the anode catalyst layer in contact with the electrolyte membrane. A methanol flux value Jof the anode diffusion layer and a methanol flux value Jof the electrolyte membrane satisfy the following relations:=1&#xd7;10to 5&#xd7;10mol/(cm&#xb7;min.),&#x2003;&#x2003;(i)and&#x2266;1&#xd7;10[mol/(cm&#xb7;min.)].&#x2003;&#x2003;(ii)

Direct methanol fuel cell

The fuel cell of this invention includes at least one unit cell that includes: a membrane-electrode assembly including an electrolyte membrane sandwiched between an anode and a cathode; an anode-side separator in contact with the anode and having a fuel flow path for supplying a fuel to the anode; and a cathode-side separator in contact with the cathode and having an oxidant flow path for supplying an oxidant to the cathode. The fuel flow path has a first flow channel and a second flow channel, and each of the first flow channel and the second flow channel has a fuel inlet and a fuel outlet. The first flow channel and the second flow channel are adjacent to each other, and the direction of the flow of fuel through the first flow channel is opposite to the direction of the flow of fuel through the second flow channel.

Fuel cell

A prismatic battery module includes a prismatic battery case having a plurality of prismatic cell cases connected to one another through separation walls, a planar electroconductive connector forming part of the separation wall between the cell cases, an electrode plate group arranged in each cell case, and an electrolyte placed in each cell case. Lead portions of positive electrode plates and negative electrode plates of the electrode plate group are directly connected to the electroconductive connector. The prismatic battery module requires fewer connection points and provides shorter electrical communication paths, thereby reducing internal resistance.

Prismatic battery module and method for manufacturing the same

To prevent the flooding phenomenon at the cathode in a unit cell where the temperature is relatively low or the supply of air is small, a fuel cell stack includes at least three flat unit cells stacked with separators interposed therebetween, the unit cells comprising an anode, a cathode and an electrolyte membrane sandwiched therebetween, and having an oxidant channel formed on the surface of the separator adjacent to the cathode, and the anode and the cathode comprising a catalyst layer attached to the electrolyte membrane and a diffusion layer, wherein the cross-sectional area of the inlet side of the oxidant channel, the area of the cathode catalyst layer, the thickness of the electrolyte membrane or the amount of a water repellent contained in the combination of the cathode and the oxidant channel is the largest in at least one of the unit cells at the ends of the stack.

Fuel cell stack

A fuel cell system includes: a fuel cell including an anode, a cathode, and an electrolyte interposed between the anode and the cathode; and a purifying apparatus including a catalyst layer that purifies an effluent discharged from the anode. The purifying apparatus has a porous sheet including the catalyst layer and two flow paths disposed on both sides thereof. One of the flow paths has an inlet into which the effluent discharged from the anode is introduced, and the other flow path has an inlet into which air is introduced and an outlet. The effluent discharged from the anode is passed through the porous sheet for purification and then discharged from the outlet.

Fuel cell system with purifying apparatus

For give a direct methanol fuel cell which secures the fuel supply to the catalyst layer, reliably discharge generated carbon dioxide gas, and has excellent electricity generation ability, at least a portion of the anode side flow path is divided by a film having water-repellency and gas permeability to a first flow path portion positioned at the membrane electrode assembly side and a second flow path portion positioned at the bottom side of the anode side flow path where a fuel mainly flows in the first flow path portion and carbon dioxide mainly flows in the second flow path portion.

An electrode plate unit capable of suppressing the internal short circuit caused by flashing that is formed on the end portion of a positive electrode plate and a battery using the same. The electrode plate unit includes a group of electrode plates in which a plurality of positive electrode plates and a plurality of negative electrode plates are laminated alternately via separators, a positive electrode collector plate connected to one side face of the group of electrode plates for connection to the positive electrode plate, and a negative electrode collector plate connected to another side face of the group of electrode plates for connection to the negative electrode plate, wherein the edge portion of the positive electrode plate is protruded from the edge portion of the negative electrode plate on the entire side face excluding the side face to which the negative electrode collector plate of the group of electrode plates is connected.

Electrode plate unit and battery

A plurality of cells (to) are abutted against each other and electrically connected on the short sides of rectangular battery housings (), and binding plates () disposed on both long sides are tied together with binding bands () to integrally link the cells (to). Because the heat radiation conditions are equalized among the cells (to), there is an extremely small temperature differential between the cells, charging efficiency, which varies with temperature conditions, is consistent, and there is no variance in battery capacity, so none of the cells are over-discharged, and battery life is extended.

Battery pack with thermal distribution configuration

A cell includes an electrode plate group which is formed by laminating a positive electrode plate and a negative electrode plate with a separator interposed between them, and includes leads protruding toward directions opposite to each other from one side of the positive electrode plate and the negative electrode plate, collectors which are joined to the leads on both sides of the electrode plate group, and include connection protrusions formed so as to protrude outside, and a bag-shape battery case containing the electrode plate group joined to the collectors such that only the connection protrusions of the collectors are protruded outside. A battery module is constituted by placing a plurality of the cells in a prismatic battery case while the connection protrusions of the collectors of the cells are connected with each other, thereby making the current-carrying path between the electrode plate groups straight and short and increasing the output.

A prismatic sealed battery module includes: a prismatic battery case; an electrode plate group constituted by alternately layering positive and negative electrode plates with a separator arranged therebetween; and an electrolyte. The positive or negative electrode plates protruding from each end face of the electrode plate group are bonded to a collector member. A metal connector is fixed to the central part of the collector member facing the inner surface of the side end wall of the battery case. The collector member is connected, at the metal connector, to an external terminal using an externally connecting bolt.

Growing community of inventors

Moriguchi, Japan

Shinsuke Fukuda