Ngk Spark Plug Company, Limited

Morimura Sofc Technology Co., Ltd.

Takafumi Shichida

Nobuyuki Hotta

Shunsuke Tsuga

Yuki Ota

Tetsuya Morikawa

Kenta Manabe

Takaya Yoshikawa

Satoshi Ishikawa

Takeshi Ohno

Hideki Ishikawa

Hideki Uematsu

Hiroya Ishikawa

Takashi Nakashima

Daisuke Komatsu

Hirotoshi Yoshizaki

To prevent a reduction in the performance of a unit cell due to a gas shortage in a cathode chamber. An electrochemical reaction unit includes a unit cell, a cathode-side member, and an anode-side member. The electrochemical reaction unit satisfies the following condition on at least one of supply and discharge sides of the cathode chamber. Condition: the distance between the midpoint between opposite end points of a cathode-side opening group including an opening of a cathode-side communication channel and the midpoint (specific point) between opposite end points of an anode-side supply opening group including an opening of an anode-side supply communication channel in a direction parallel to an inner circumferential surface of a cathode chamber hole is shorter than the distance between the centroid of a cathode-side gas channel hole and the specific point in the direction parallel to the inner circumferential surface of the cathode chamber hole.

Electrochemical reaction unit and electrochemical reaction cell stack

An electrochemical reaction unit including a unit cell, a cathode-side member, and an anode-side member. The sum La of the distance Lai between a virtual straight line representing a center position of the unit cell and the midpoint between opposite end points of a cathode-side supply opening group and the distance Lao between the virtual straight line and the midpoint between opposite end points of a cathode-side discharge opening group is smaller than the sum Lf of the distance Lfi between the virtual straight line and the midpoint between opposite end points of an anode-side supply opening group including an opening of an anode-side supply communication channel and the distance Lfo between the virtual straight line and the midpoint between opposite end points of an anode-side discharge opening group including an opening of an anode-side discharge communication channel.

Electrochemical reaction unit including cathode-side frame configured to improve spreading of oxidant gas and electrochemical reaction cell stack

An electrochemical reaction cell stack includes an electrochemical reaction block including three or more electrochemical reaction units arranged in a first direction; a first heat-absorbing member which is disposed on one side of the electrochemical reaction block in the first direction and absorbs heat generated from the electrochemical reaction block; and a second heat-absorbing member which is disposed on the other side of the electrochemical reaction block in the first direction and absorbs heat generated from the electrochemical reaction block. An upstream electrochemical reaction unit is disposed between the first heat-absorbing member and the downstream electrochemical reaction unit disposed closest to the first heat-absorbing member, and an upstream electrochemical reaction unit is disposed between the second heat-absorbing member and the downstream electrochemical reaction unit disposed closest to the second heat-absorbing member.

Electrochemical reaction cell stack

A fuel gas supply path in a fuel cell stack includes in series a first path, a second path, and a third path. In the second path, two inlets of the fuel gas in each of power generating cells included in the second path are located at a first position PA and a second position PB, and the position of one outlet of the fuel gas in each power generating cell is located at a third position PC. In the third path, an inlet of the fuel gas in each of power generating cells included in the third path is located at a position coinciding with the third position PC when the power generating cells are viewed in the stacking direction, and an outlet of the fuel gas in each power generating cell is located at a position between the first position PA and the second position PB.

Fuel cell stack

The fuel cell includes a fuel cell stack in which a plurality of planar power generation cells are stacked in a thickness direction thereof. The fuel cell also includes a heat exchanger provided between the two adjacent power generation cells in the stacking direction and in contact with the power generation cells, and including an internal first flow path that passes the oxidant gas or fuel gas supplied from outside. The fuel cell also includes a second flow path connected to an outlet side of the first flow path of the heat exchanger and to the cathode side or the anode side of each of the power generation cells, and supplying the oxidant gas or fuel gas that has passed through the first flow path to the cathode side or anode side of each of the power generation cells on both sides in the stacking direction of the heat exchanger.

Fuel cell

A fuel cell according to one mode includes a plate-like interconnector having a front surface and a back surface; a single cell having a power generation function; a gas chamber provided between the interconnector and the single cell; and one or more gas inlet ports for causing a fuel gas to flow into the gas chamber, the fuel cell further including a buffer chamber provided between the gas inlet ports and the gas chamber; a flow direction changing portion provided between the buffer chamber and the gas chamber so as to be located corresponding to the gas inlet ports, the flow direction changing portion having at least one of a front surface and a back surface, and a side surface; and a fuel gas path provided on at least one of the front surface side and the back surface side of the flow direction changing portion.

A fuel cell stack () includes a plurality of stacked power generation cells (), a heat exchange unit () provided between adjacent two of the power generation cells, a fuel gas supply path arranged to supply the power generation cells with a fuel gas, and an oxidant gas supply path () arranged to supply the power generation cells with an oxidant gas, wherein the fuel gas supply path includes in series a first path () passing through the heat exchange unit (), a second path () passing through some of the plurality of power generation cells () in parallel, and a third path () passing through the other power generation cells in parallel.

A gas sensor is constructed as follows. A protector () covering around a gas sensing element () has an inner hollow-cylindrical portion () and an outer hollow-cylindrical portion () that is provided coaxially with the inner hollow-cylindrical portion () with an air space () in between. Outer-wall gas inlet openings () are formed in the outer hollow-cylindrical portion (), and guiding bodies () extending inward are attached to the outer-wall gas inlet openings (). Inner-wall gas inlet openings () are formed in the inner hollow-cylindrical portion () at positions nearer to the gas sensing element () than the outer-wall gas inlet openings (). A side wall () face of the inner hollow-cylindrical portion () opposite the outer-wall gas inlet openings () is formed so as to be parallel to a side wall () of the outer-hollow cylindrical portion () or so as to have a slop-like shape with a diameter enlarging in the axial direction toward a bottom wall () of the protector (). A discharge opening () for a gas to be measured is formed in the bottom wall ().

Growing community of inventors

Nagoya, Japan

Takafumi Shichida