Patent ID: 7645530

Claim:
A fuel cell for generating electrical current via an electrochemical process, comprising: an electrochemical process area comprising a cathode area, an anode area and substantially flat ion-exchanging membrane, said cathode area and said anode area being separated from each other by the ion-exchanging membrane, wherein said cathode area comprises a gas passage way having a gas inlet, a gas channel and a gas outlet, wherein said gas passage way is configured for an oxygen-containing gas to flow from the gas inlet through the gas channel to the gas outlet, wherein an oxygen-content of the oxygen-containing gas decreases and a humidity content of the oxygen-containing gas increases due to the electrochemical process taking place in the electrochemical process area; and a humidity transfer area comprising a dehumidifying zone, a humidifying zone and a substantially flat humidity transfer membrane, said dehumidifying zone and said humidifying zone being separated from each other by the humidity transfer membrane, which is configured to be gas tight and pervious to humidity; wherein the gas outlet is connected via an exhaust channel to the dehumidifying zone and the gas inlet is connected via an inlet channel to the humidifying zone, wherein humidity is extracted from the oxygen-containing gas in the dehumidifying zone, wherein the extracted humidity is added to the oxygen-containing gas in the humidifying zone by transferring the extracted humidity over the humidity transfer membrane from the dehumidifying zone to the humidifying zone; and wherein the ion-exchanging membrane and the humidity transfer membrane are oriented substantially parallel to each other and are arranged to share a common plane.