Patent ID: 7544437

Claim:
A fuel cell which comprises a plurality of first hollow electrically conductive gas permeable carbon fibres which are coated on the outside with a fuel cell catalyst and which have a means to enable a fuel vapour or gas to be passed down the inside of the fibre and a plurality of second hollow electrically conductive gas permeable carbon fibres which are coated on the outside with a fuel cell catalyst and which have a means to enable oxygen or an oxygen containing gas to be passed down the inside of the fibre with the first hollow electrically conductive gas permeable carbon fibres arranged side by side, so as to form a first sheet of the fibres, with the second hollow electrically conductive gas permeable carbon fibres arranged side by side to form a second sheet of the fibres, with the fibres in each adjacent sheet at an angle to each other and in which first electrically conductive gas permeable fibre sheet (anode) and the second electrically conductive gas permeable fibre sheet (cathode) are separated by a fuel cell proton conducting layer which is positioned in between them, and further comprising a multi-layered block formed of a plurality of alternate sheets in which the first sheet comprises a layer of the first electrically conductive gas permeable carbon fibres forming cathodes and the second sheet comprises a layer of the second electrically conductive gas permeable carbon fibres forming the anodes with the fibres in each alternate layer substantially orthogonal to each other.