Source: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20070292729A1/en
Timestamp: 2018-04-22 01:27:17
Document Index: 183137246

Matched Legal Cases: ['§119', 'Application No. 60', '§120', '§119', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60', 'Application No. 60']

US20070292729A1 - Heat efficient portable fuel cell systems - Google Patents
US20070292729A1
US20070292729A1 US11830274 US83027407A US2007292729A1 US 20070292729 A1 US20070292729 A1 US 20070292729A1 US 11830274 US11830274 US 11830274 US 83027407 A US83027407 A US 83027407A US 2007292729 A1 US2007292729 A1 US 2007292729A1
US7943263B2 (en )
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/314,810, filed Dec. 20, 2005 and entitled “Heat Efficient Portable Fuel Cell Systems”, which a) claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/638,421 filed on Dec. 21, 2004; and b) is a continuation-in-part of and claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §120 to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/877,771 filed Jun. 25, 2004, which claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(e) from i) U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/482,996 filed on Jun. 27, 2003, ii) U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/483,416 and filed on Jun. 27, 2003, and iii) U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/482,981 and filed on Jun. 27, 2003; each of the above mentioned patent applications is incorporated by reference in its entirety herein for all purposes.
FIG. 3C illustrates a top perspective view of a stack of bi-polar plates (with the top two plates labeled 44p and 44q) in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. Bi-polar plate 44 is a single plate 44 with first channel fields 72 disposed on opposite faces 75 of the plate 44.
For cooling, heat transfer appendage 46 permits integral conductive heat transfer from inner portions of plate 44 to the externally disposed appendage 46. During hydrogen consumption and electrical energy production, the electrochemical reaction generates heat in each MEA 62. Since internal portions of bi-polar plate 44 are in contact with the MEA 62, a heat transfer appendage 46 on a bi-polar plate 44 thus cools an MEA 62 adjacent to the plate via a) conductive heat transfer from MEA 62 to bi-polar plate 44 and b) lateral thermal communication and conductive heat transfer from central portions of the bi-polar plate 44 in contact with the MEA 62 to the external portions of plate 44 that include appendage 46. In this case, heat transfer appendage 46 sinks heat from substrate 89 between a first channel field 72 on one face 75 of plate 44 and a second channel field 72 on the opposite face of plate 44 to heat transfer appendage 46 in a direction parallel to a face 75 of plate 44. When a fuel cell stack 60 includes multiple MEA layers 62, lateral thermal communication through each bi-polar plate 44 in this manner provides interlayer cooling of multiple MEA layers 62 in stack 60 - including those layers in central portions of stack 60.
US20070292729A1 true true US20070292729A1 (en) 2007-12-20
US7943263B2 US7943263B2 (en) 2011-05-17