Patent ID: 7972741

Claim:
A fuel cell stack including a plurality of stacked fuel cells, each fuel cell including an active area, said fuel cell stack comprising: a plurality of membranes where each fuel cell in the stack includes a membrane; a plurality of diffusion media layers where each fuel cell includes an anode side diffusion media layer at an anode side of the fuel cell and a cathode side diffusion media layer at a cathode side of the fuel cell; a plurality of bipolar plates positioned between the fuel cells in the stack adjacent to the diffusion media layers, said bipolar plates including anode flow channels facing the anode side diffusion media layer in the fuel cells, cathode flow channels facing the cathode side diffusion media layer in the fuel cells 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 from the cooling fluid flow channels; and a configuration of seals for containing the reactant gas flow and the cooling fluid flow in the stack, said configuration of seals including a cathode header seal provided between the cathode outlet header and the active area of each fuel cell, wherein the cathode flow channels are straight flow channels between the cathode outlet header and the active area, said configuration of seals further including an anode header seal provided between the anode outlet header and the active area of each fuel cell, wherein the anode flow channels are straight flow channels between the anode outlet header and the active area, said cathode side diffusion media layer in each fuel cell extends through the seal area between the cathode outlet header and the active area, and the anode side diffusion media layer in each fuel cell extends through the seal area between the anode outlet header and the active area.