Patent ID: 7473483

Claim:
A direct methanol fuel cell comprising: a membrane electrode assembly with a first side and a second side opposite to said first side, said assembly comprising a polymer electrolyte membrane with a first side and a second side opposite to said first side, an anode attached to said first side of said polymer electrolyte membrane, and a cathode attached to said second side of said polymer electrolyte membrane; an anode side separator disposed on said first side of said membrane electrode assembly; and a cathode side separator disposed on said second side of said membrane electrode assembly; wherein said anode side separator is provided with an anode side flow path comprising at least one groove formed on an anode side thereof, and said cathode side separator is provided with a cathode side flow path comprising at least one groove formed on a cathode side thereof, at least a portion of said anode side flow path is divided, along the direction perpendicular to the depth thereof by a film permeable to gas but hardly permeable to liquid, to have a first flow path portion positioned at a side of said membrane electrode assembly and a second flow path portion positioned at a bottom side of said anode side flow path, a slope to which said film is fixed is formed on each bottom corner of said groove of said at least a portion of said anode side flow path, the height of said slope increasing from an upstream side toward a downstream side, and a fuel mainly flows in said first flow path portion and carbon dioxide mainly flows in said second flow path portion.