EXTRUDED FUEL CELL STACK SHUNT CURRENT PREVENTION ARRANGEMENT

• Main Author: ROCHE; ROBERT P
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 12.01.1993
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; ELECTRICITY; PROCESSES OR MEANS, e.g. BATTERIES, FOR THE DIRECT CONVERSIONOF CHEMICAL INTO ELECTRICAL ENERGY

A fuel cell stack (10) includes a plurality of fuel cells (11) juxtaposed with one another in the stack and each including a pair of porous plate-shaped anode (13) and cathode electrodes (14) that face one another, and a quantity of liquid electrolyte (15) present at least between the electrodes. A separator plate (12) is interposed between each two successive electrodes of adjacent ones of the fuel cells and is unified therewith into an integral separator plate by forcing most of a quantity of an electrolyte-nonwettable material (18,19), which is originally introdused into the respective interface as a sheet of such material, into the pores of the respective electrodes. A circumferentially complete barrier (23) that prevents flow of shunt currents onto and on an outer peripheral surface of the separator plate (12) is formed by extruding the remainder of the electrolyte-nonwettable material out of the respective interface. This barrier also prevents cell-to-cell migration of any electrolyte that may be present at the outer periphery of the integral separator plate while the latter is incorporated in the fuel cell stack.