Cooled zinc-oxygen battery

Abstract

The invention provides a multi-cell, sealed, cooled, zinc-oxygen battery, comprising a container containing a plurality of bi-cells, each cell having a housing provided with two major surfaces and accommodating a pair of oppositely-disposed, spaced-apart, air-permeable, liquid-impermeable cathodes in the form of oxygen-reduction electrodes, and defining between themselves a cavity configured to accommodate an anode of the battery and electrolyte, substantial portions of the major surfaces of the housing being removed, thus exposing major portions of the oxygen-reduction electrodes, and wherein two major surfaces are partly recessed in such a way as to form, in conjunction with a similarly-recessed outer surface of a major wall of an adjacent cell housing, an inter-cathode gas space between adjacent cells with a plurality of oxygen access openings leading thereto; an anode positioned within the cavity and comprising an active zinc anode component compacted into a rigid static bed of active anode material of tight interparticulate structure, the anode being provided with at least one internal fluid-carrying passage with inlet and outlet means, for circulating cooling fluid therethrough; a dead space volume between inner surfaces of the housing and the plurality of bi-cells; and pressurized oxygen supply means for feeding oxygen to the dead space volume, for consumption in the inter-cathode gas spaces.