Utc Fuel Cells, LLC

Ballard Power Systems Corporation

Shubhro Ghosh

Sergei F Burlatsky

Nikunj Gupta

Jean Colpin

Ying She

Zissis A Dardas

Weilong Zhang

Thomas Henry Vanderspurt

Justin R Hawkes

Patrick L Hagans

Sunil Govinda Warrier

A fuel cell includes a cell having a solid oxide electrolyte between electrodes. The cell has a first coefficient of thermal expansion. A metallic support is in electrical connection with one of the electrodes. The metallic support includes a metal substrate and a compliant porous nickel layer that is bonded to the metal substrate between the cell and the metal substrate. The metal substrate has a second coefficient of thermal expansion that nominally matches the first coefficient of thermal expansion of the cell. The metal substrate has a first stiffness and the compliant porous nickel layer has a second stiffness that is less than the first stiffness such that the compliant porous nickel layer can thermally expand and contract with the metal substrate.

Solid oxide fuel cell having metal support with a compliant porous nickel layer

A bipolar plate () for use in a fuel cell stack () includes one or more first metal layers () having a tendency to grow an electrically passive layer in the presence of a fuel cell reactant gas and one or more second metal layers () directly adjacent the one or more first metal layers (). The second metal layer has a tendency to resist growing any oxide layer in the presence of the fuel cell reactant gas to maintain a threshold electrical conductivity. The second metal layer also has a section for contacting an electrode () and providing an electrically conductive path between the electrode () and the first metal layer.

Fuel cell flow field having strong, chemically stable metal bipolar plates

A fuel processing system (FPS) () is provided for a fuel cell power plant () having a fuel cell stack assembly (CSA) (). A water gas shift (WGS) reaction section () of the FPS () reduces the concentration of carbon monoxide (CO) in the supplied hydrocarbon reformate, and a preferred oxidation (PROX) section () further reduces the CO concentration to an acceptable level. The WGS section () includes a reactor () with a high activity catalyst for reducing the reformate Co concentration to a relatively low level, e.g., 2,000 ppmv or less, thereby relatively reducing the structural volume of the FPS (). The high activity catalyst is active at temperatures as low as 250&#xb0; C., and may be a noble-metal-on-ceria catalyst of Pt and Re on a nanocrystaline, cerium oxide-based support. Then only a low temperature PROX reactor () is required for preferential oxidation in the FPS ().

High performance fuel processing system for fuel cell power plant

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Manchester, CT, United States of America

Shubhro Ghosh