Seal support diffusion media for improved fuel cell design

摘要

A fuel cell stack (10) comprises membranes; diffusion media layers; bipolar plates between including anode flow channels, cathode flow channels, and cooling fluid flow channels; an anode inlet header (18); an anode outlet header (20); a cathode inlet header (14); a cathode outlet header (16); a cooling fluid inlet header (22); and a configuration of seals (30, 32, 34, 36, 38) including a cathode header seal provided between the cathode outlet header and an active area (12) of each fuel cell. A fuel cell stack comprises membranes; diffusion media layers, where each fuel cell includes an anode side diffusion media layer at an anode side, and a cathode side diffusion media layer at a cathode side of the fuel cell; bipolar plates between the fuel cells in the stack adjacent to the diffusion media layers, the bipolar plates including anode flow channels facing the anode side diffusion media layer, cathode flow channels facing the cathode side diffusion media layer, and cooling fluid flow channels; an anode inlet header directing an anode reactant gas flow to the anode flow channels; an anode outlet header receiving the anode reactant gas flow from the anode flow channels; a cathode inlet header directing a cathode reactant gas flow to the cathode flow channels; a cathode outlet header receiving the cathode reactant gas flow from the cathode flow channels; a cooling fluid inlet header directing a cooling fluid to the cooling fluid flow channels; a cooling fluid outlet header receiving the cooling fluid; and a configuration of seals for containing the reactant gas flow and the cooling fluid flow in the stack. The configuration of seals includes a cathode header seal provided between the cathode outlet header and the active area of each fuel cell. The cathode flow channels are straight flow channels between the cathode outlet header and the active area. The configuration of seals further includes an anode header seal provided between the anode outlet header and the active area of each fuel cell. The anode flow channels are straight flow channels between the anode outlet header and the active area.