The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 07, 2002
Filed:
Feb. 25, 2000
Yukinori Akiyama, Ibaraki, JP;
Shigeru Sakamoto, Ota, JP;
Takahiro Isono, Hirakata, JP;
Takaaki Matsubayashi, Hirakata, JP;
Yasuo Miyake, Ora-gun, JP;
Ikuo Yonezu, Hirakata, JP;
Koji Nishio, Hirakata, JP;
Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
The invention provides a polymer electrolyte fuel cell device comprising at least one fuel cell having an anode, a cathode and a polymer electrolyte membrane provided between the anode and cathode, a combustion unit , a fuel gas pipe for introducing therethrough the unreacted portion of a fuel gas discharged from the fuel cell into the combustion unit , and an oxidizer gas supply manifold for supplying oxidizer gas discharged from the combustion unit to the cathode. By partly consuming the oxygen contained in an oxidizer gas supplied from outside, the combustion unit burns the unreacted fuel gas and burns the impurities contained in the oxidizer gas. This feature prevents the polymer electrolyte membrane from drying, affords a high cell voltage without impairment and enables the device to achieve a higher overall efficiency than in the prior art.