Patent ID: 8535842

Claim:
A fuel cell stack comprising: a pair of end cells sandwiching a plurality of inboard cells therebetween; an electrically conductive sealed terminal plate including a first part having a combustion chamber formed therein and a second part sealed to the first part for sealing said combustion chamber and forming said electrically conductive sealed terminal plate; said electrically conductive sealed terminal plate engaging one of said pair of end cells and configured for collecting electrical current generated by said stack and for directly, conductively heating said end cells while cold-starting said stack, said first part of said electrically conductive sealed terminal plate comprising: internal walls defining said combustion chamber, said combustion chamber comprising a plurality of header channels coupled to a plurality of downstream footer channels via a plurality of intermediate channels extending between each of said header channels and said footer channels, a catalyst in said combustion chamber for promoting an exothermal chemical oxidation of H 2 , an inlet to an inlet manifold channel that supplies the header channels of said combustion chamber for admitting a sub-LEL mixture of H 2 and air to said combustion chamber, and an outlet from an exhaust manifold channel that receives gas from said intermediate channels from said combustion chamber for exhausting H 2 O and H 2 -depleted air from said combustion chamber; a first supply of air from a source of air to said inboard cells; and a second supply of air from the source of air to said terminal plate.