阅读说明：本技术 一种波浪形燃料电池单电池及电堆 (Wave-shaped fuel cell monocell and electric pile ) 是由 邱殿凯 廖书信 彭林法 易培云 来新民 于 2020-12-22 设计创作，主要内容包括：本发明涉及一种波浪形燃料电池单电池及电堆,单电池包括阳极极板(1)、阴极极板(2)以及膜电极组件(3),所述的阳极极板(1)为波浪形结构,其上并列布置若干阳极流道(101)和阳极脊板(102),所述的阴极极板(2)采用与阳极极板(1)相互啮合的波浪形结构,其上并列布置若干阴极流道(201)和阴极脊板(202),所述的膜电极组件(3)安装在阳极极板(1)和阴极极板(2)之间,单电池沿流道宽度方向呈现波浪形结构；多个单电池依次堆叠组成燃料电池电堆。与现有技术相比,本发明通过波浪形的结构设计显著地提高燃料电池单位体积内的反应面积,进而提高燃料电池的功率密度,而且对现有加工制造技术改变较小,生产可行性高。(The invention relates to a wave-shaped fuel cell single cell and a pile, wherein the single cell comprises an anode plate (1), a cathode plate (2) and a membrane electrode assembly (3), the anode plate (1) is of a wave-shaped structure, a plurality of anode runners (101) and anode ridgeplates (102) are arranged on the anode plate (1) in parallel, the cathode plate (2) adopts a wave-shaped structure meshed with the anode plate (1), a plurality of cathode runners (201) and cathode ridgeplates (202) are arranged on the cathode plate in parallel, the membrane electrode assembly (3) is arranged between the anode plate (1) and the cathode plate (2), and the single cell presents a wave-shaped structure along the width direction of the runners; a plurality of single cells are stacked in sequence to form a fuel cell stack. Compared with the prior art, the invention obviously improves the reaction area in the unit volume of the fuel cell through the wavy structural design, further improves the power density of the fuel cell, and has little change to the existing processing and manufacturing technology and high production feasibility.)

1. A wavy fuel cell single cell comprises an anode plate (1), a cathode plate (2) and a membrane electrode assembly (3), and is characterized in that the anode plate (1) is of a wavy structure, a plurality of anode flow channels (101) and anode ridge plates (102) are arranged on the anode plate in parallel, the cathode plate (2) adopts a wavy structure meshed with the anode plate (1), a plurality of cathode flow channels (201) and cathode ridge plates (202) are arranged on the cathode plate in parallel, the membrane electrode assembly (3) is installed between the anode plate (1) and the cathode plate (2), and the single cell is of a wavy structure along the width direction of the flow channels.

2. The wavy fuel cell single cell as claimed in claim 1, wherein the anode flow channels (101) and the anode ridge plates (102) are alternately distributed in parallel on the anode plate (1), the anode flow channels (101) are respectively connected with the anode gas inlet channel (5) and the anode gas outlet channel (6), the anode cooling flow channels (103) are arranged on the back surface of the anode ridge plate (102), and the anode cooling flow channels (103) are respectively connected with the cooling liquid inlet channel (9) and the cooling liquid outlet channel (10).

3. A corrugated fuel cell single cell as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cathode channels (201) and the cathode ridge plates (202) are alternately distributed on the cathode plate (2) in parallel, the cathode channels (201) are respectively connected with the cathode gas inlet channel (7) and the cathode gas outlet channel (8), the back of the cathode ridge plate (202) is provided with the cathode cooling channels (203), and the cathode cooling channels (203) are respectively connected with the cooling liquid inlet channel (9) and the cooling liquid outlet channel (10).

4. The wavy fuel cell single cell as claimed in claim 2, wherein the side of the bottom of the anode flow channel (101) far away from the membrane electrode assembly (3) is of a plane closed structure, the side of the top of the anode flow channel (101) contacting the membrane electrode assembly (3) is of an open structure, and the included angles between the left side plate (1011) of the anode flow channel, the right side plate (1012) of the anode flow channel and the bottom of the anode flow channel (101) are not less than 90 degrees.

5. A corrugated fuel cell unit cell according to claim 2, characterised in that the difference in height between two side plates of adjacent anode flow channels (101), the width of adjacent anode flow channels (101) and the width of adjacent anode ridge plates (102) are constant or vary according to a set rule.

6. The wavy fuel cell single cell as claimed in claim 3, wherein the side of the bottom of the cathode flow channel (201) far away from the membrane electrode assembly (3) is of a plane closed structure, the side of the top of the cathode flow channel (201) contacting the membrane electrode assembly (3) is of an open structure, the included angles between the left side plate (2011) of the cathode flow channel, the right side plate (2012) of the cathode flow channel and the bottom surface of the cathode flow channel (201) are not less than 90 degrees, and the heights of the two corresponding side plates of the cathode flow channel (201) and the anode flow channel (101) are complementary.

7. A corrugated fuel cell unit cell according to claim 3, wherein the difference in height between two side plates of adjacent cathode flow channels (201), the width of adjacent cathode flow channels (201) and the width of adjacent cathode ridge plates (202) are respectively equal to the difference in height between two side plates of adjacent anode flow channels (101), the width of adjacent anode flow channels (101) and the width of adjacent anode ridge plates (102).

8. A wave-shaped fuel cell single cell as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the upper surface of the membrane electrode assembly (3) is engaged with the lower surface of the anode plate (1), the lower surface is engaged with the upper surface of the cathode plate (2), and the structure of the membrane electrode assembly (3) is determined by the anode plate (1) and the cathode plate (2) together.

9. An electric pile containing the wavy fuel cell unit cell as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that the electric pile is formed by stacking a plurality of fuel cell units in sequence along the height direction of the cell, the anode plate (1) and the cathode plate (2) of the adjacent unit cells in the electric pile are assembled oppositely, the anode cooling flow channel (103) and the cathode cooling flow channel (203) jointly form an electric pile cooling channel (4) with a closed cross section, and the electric pile is in a wavy structure along the width direction of the flow channel.

10. The wavy fuel cell stack according to claim 9, wherein all the single cells in the stack share an anode inlet channel (5), an anode outlet channel (6), a cathode inlet channel (7), a cathode outlet channel (8), a cooling inlet channel (9) and a cooling outlet channel (10).

Technical Field

The invention belongs to the technical field of fuel cells, and relates to a fuel cell single cell and a fuel cell stack with the characteristic of a wave-shaped structure.

Background

With the gradual depletion of fossil fuels, hydrogen energy is receiving more and more attention as a clean and efficient energy form. A Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is a device that generates electrical energy through an electrochemical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen, and has the general characteristics of a fuel cell such as fast energy conversion efficiency, environmental friendliness, and the like, and also has the outstanding advantages of being capable of being started quickly at room temperature, having no electrolyte loss, being easily discharged from water, having high specific power and specific energy, and the like. The conventional PEMFC mainly comprises components such as a bipolar plate, a Membrane Electrode Assembly (MEA), and the like, wherein the bipolar plate is divided into an anode plate and a cathode plate, which can realize current conduction in the cell, distribute reaction gas and coolant, and discharge reaction products, thereby affecting the uniform reaction and water and gas management of the fuel cell; fuel cells are typically assembled from a number of individual cells in a stack to achieve higher voltage and power output.

With the continuous and deep research, the volume power density and the mass power density of the proton exchange membrane fuel cell are greatly improved, but a great space is provided for large-scale application. The methods for increasing the power density of the PEMFC mainly comprise two types: first, it is an improvement of the material properties of fuel cell components; and secondly, the internal structure of the fuel cell is improved. At present, the PEMFC mainly adopts a conventional plate and frame structure, and its internal structure is characterized in that the membrane electrode assembly in the cell adopts a common flat plate structure, and the bipolar plate is equipped with reactant flow channels and cooling channels. The structure has the advantages of convenient processing and manufacturing, simple assembly, good water and gas management performance, high performance allocation flexibility and the like. However, the flat plate type structural design limits the reaction utilization rate of the membrane electrode assembly per unit volume, resulting in a limitation in the improvement of the power density of the fuel cell.

Through the research and study of documents in the prior art, the membrane electrode assembly and support tube integrated tubular fuel cell disclosed in the chinese invention patent CN101465438A adopts an electrodeless plate design, and although the reaction area can be increased, the circulation of cooling liquid is difficult, the increase of power density is restricted, the processing difficulty is large, and the batch production cost is high. The fuel cell disclosed in chinese patent CN109768298A combines the functions of a bipolar plate and a Gas Diffusion Layer (GDL) to simplify the bipolar plate, but the GDL including an internal flow channel is difficult to implement, and the water management and cooling performance of the cell are affected. The Chinese patent CN101937997A adopts an arc fuel cell design, which can improve the mechanical performance of cell parts and the installation performance of the cell, but the ratio change of the membrane electrode in a single volume in the cell is small, and the power density of the cell is improved to a limited extent.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to overcome the defects of the prior art and provide a wavy fuel cell single cell and a stack which can improve the power density of a fuel cell, ensure the hydrothermal management of the cell and are convenient to manufacture and assemble.

The purpose of the invention can be realized by the following technical scheme: the wavy fuel cell single cell comprises an anode plate, a cathode plate and a membrane electrode assembly, wherein the anode plate is of a wavy structure, a plurality of anode runners and anode ridgeplates are arranged on the anode plate in parallel, the cathode plate is of a wavy structure meshed with the anode plate, a plurality of cathode runners and cathode ridgeplates are arranged on the cathode plate in parallel, the membrane electrode assembly is arranged between the anode plate and the cathode plate, and the single cell is of a wavy structure along the width direction of the runners.

Further, the anode flow channels and the anode ridge plates are alternately distributed in parallel on the anode plate, the anode flow channels are respectively connected with the anode air inlet channel and the anode air outlet channel, the anode cooling flow channels are arranged on the back of the anode ridge plate, and the anode cooling flow channels are respectively connected with the cooling liquid inlet channel and the cooling liquid outlet channel.

Furthermore, the cathode channels and the cathode ridge plates are alternately distributed in parallel on the cathode plate, the cathode channels are respectively connected with the cathode air inlet channel and the cathode air outlet channel, the cathode cooling channel is arranged on the back of the cathode ridge plate, and the cathode cooling channel is respectively connected with the cooling liquid inlet channel and the cooling liquid outlet channel.

Furthermore, the side of the bottom of the anode runner, which is far away from the membrane electrode assembly, is of a plane closed structure, the side of the top of the anode runner, which is in contact with the membrane electrode assembly, is of an open structure, and the included angles between the left side plate of the anode runner, the right side plate of the anode runner and the bottom of the anode runner are not less than 90 degrees; the height difference of the two side plates of the anode flow channel directly influences the inclination degree of the top of the anode flow channel, and the larger the height difference of the two side plates is, the more the top of the anode flow channel is inclined.

Further, the height difference of the two side plates of the adjacent anode flow channel, the width of the adjacent anode flow channel and the width of the adjacent anode ridge plate are constant or are changed according to a set rule.

Furthermore, the side of the bottom of the cathode flow channel, which is far away from the membrane electrode assembly, is a plane closed structure, the side of the top of the cathode flow channel, which is in contact with the membrane electrode assembly, is an open structure, the included angles between the left side plate of the cathode flow channel, the right side plate of the cathode flow channel and the bottom surface of the cathode flow channel are not less than 90 degrees, the height difference between the two side plates of the cathode flow channel directly influences the inclination degree of the top of the cathode flow channel, and the larger the height difference between; the heights of the two corresponding side plates of the cathode flow channel and the anode flow channel can be complementary, and the cross sections of a group of corresponding cathode and anode flow channels can form a closed rectangle.

Further, the height difference between the two side plates of the adjacent cathode flow channel, the width of the adjacent cathode flow channel and the width of the adjacent cathode ridge plate are respectively and correspondingly equal to the height difference between the two side plates of the adjacent anode flow channel, the width of the adjacent anode flow channel and the width of the adjacent anode ridge plate.

Further, the membrane electrode assembly is arranged between the anode plate and the cathode plate, the upper surface of the membrane electrode assembly is meshed with the lower surface of the anode plate, the lower surface of the membrane electrode assembly is meshed with the upper surface of the cathode plate, and the structure of the membrane electrode assembly is determined by the shape structure of the meshed part of the anode plate and the cathode plate.

The electric pile containing wave-shaped fuel cell single cell is formed by stacking a plurality of fuel cell single cells in sequence along the height direction of the cell, the anode plate and the cathode plate of the adjacent single cell in the electric pile are assembled oppositely, an anode cooling flow channel and a cathode cooling flow channel jointly form an electric pile cooling channel with a closed section, and the electric pile is in a wave-shaped structure along the width direction of the flow channel.

Furthermore, all the single cells in the electric pile share the anode air inlet channel, the anode air outlet channel, the cathode air inlet channel, the cathode air outlet channel, the cooling liquid inlet channel and the cooling liquid outlet channel, so that the centralized water and gas distribution of all the single cells in the electric pile is realized.

As a preferred technical scheme, the anode plate and the cathode plate with the wavy structures are both obtained by adopting metal alloy sheets of stainless steel or titanium alloy and the like through the working procedures of blanking, stamping, punching, trimming and the like.

As a preferred technical scheme, the height difference of two side plates of the flow channel is selected as large as possible within the reasonable forming process range of the anode and cathode plates and the membrane electrode assembly, the larger the height difference of the two side plates of the flow channel is, the higher the reaction area in unit volume is, and the higher the power density of the battery is.

As a preferable technical scheme, the height difference of two side plates of adjacent flow channels, the width of the adjacent anode flow channel and the width of the adjacent anode ridge plate are kept constant. The uniform structural design is beneficial to improving the stress distribution inside the battery, and can reduce the processing difficulty of parts, improve the yield and reduce the production cost.

As a preferred technical scheme, before the electric pile is assembled, the anode plate and the cathode plate are connected through a laser welding process to form the bipolar plate, and then the components are stacked.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the following characteristics:

1) the present invention changes the existing design, the contact surfaces of the anode plate and the cathode plate with the membrane electrode are changed into a non-planar structure, and the membrane electrode is clamped in the non-planar structure, so that the cross section of the membrane electrode is wavy, and the structural design of the wavy bipolar plate and the membrane electrode assembly is adopted, so that the reaction area can be increased, the effective area utilization rate of the fuel cell is improved, the power density of the fuel cell is improved, and the power density can theoretically improve delta PkW/kg under the condition that the quality change of the fuel cell stack caused by the wavy membrane electrode assembly is ignored.

In the formula: mu-increase in reaction area of the wavy membrane electrode assembly compared to the flat membrane electrode assembly;

ε -the output power provided by the membrane electrode assembly per unit area;

lambda-fuel cell stack mass.

2) The invention reserves the design of gas flow channel and cooling channel in the traditional plate-frame fuel cell, and has better water and gas distribution and temperature control capability.

3) The invention has small change of the processing mode and the assembly process of main parts, can be adjusted on the prior manufacturing technology, has basically unchanged other parts, and hardly increases the production cost by only changing the open surfaces of the anode flow channel and the cathode flow channel into inclined surfaces.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic view of the internal structure of a single cell in example 1;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of the overall structure of a single cell in example 1;

fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of the internal structure of the cell stack in example 1.

Fig. 4 is a schematic view of the internal structure of a single cell in example 2;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of the entire structure of a single cell in example 2;

fig. 6 is a schematic view of the internal structure of the cell stack in example 2.

In the figure, 1-anode plate, 101-anode flow channel, 1011-anode flow channel left side plate, 1012-anode flow channel right side plate, 102-anode ridge plate, 103-anode cooling flow channel, 2-cathode plate, 201-cathode flow channel, 2011-cathode flow channel left side plate, 2012-cathode flow channel right side plate, 202-cathode ridge plate, 203-cathode cooling flow channel, 3-membrane electrode assembly, 4-stack cooling channel, 5-anode inlet channel, 6-anode outlet channel, 7-cathode inlet channel, cathode outlet channel, cooling inlet channel-9 and cooling outlet channel-10.

Detailed Description

The invention is described in detail below with reference to the figures and specific embodiments.

Example 1

As shown in fig. 1 and 2, a wave-shaped fuel cell single cell comprises an anode plate 1, a cathode plate 2 and a membrane electrode assembly 3, wherein the anode plate 1 is designed in a wave-shaped structure, a plurality of anode flow channels 101 and anode ridges 102 are alternately arranged on the anode plate 1 in parallel, the cathode plate 2 is designed in a wave-shaped structure meshed with the anode plate 1, a plurality of cathode flow channels 201 and cathode separators 202 are alternately arranged on the cathode plate in parallel, and the anode flow channels 101 and the cathode flow channels 201 are parallel to each other. The membrane electrode assembly 3 is arranged between the anode plate 1 and the cathode plate 2, and the whole single cell is in a wave-shaped structure along the width direction of the flow channel.

The anode plate 1 and the cathode plate 2 are both manufactured by adopting a metal plate stamping forming process, and are obtained by blanking, stamping, punching, trimming and other processes of a metal alloy sheet with the thickness of 0.1 mm. The membrane electrode assembly 3 is characterized in that the reaction area is a proton exchange membrane coated with a catalyst, a cathode gas diffusion layer and an anode gas diffusion layer, and the frame is obtained by blanking, hot-pressing, punching, trimming and other processes of a flexible PEN material with the thickness of 0.2 mm.

Anode runners 101 with the constant width of 1mm and anode ridgeplates 102 with the constant width of 1mm are alternately arranged on the anode plate 1 in parallel; the height of the left side plate 1011 of the anode flow channel and the height of the right side plate 1012 of the anode flow channel are respectively changed between 0.25mm and 0.75mm alternately; the included angles of the left side plate 1011 of the anode flow channel, the right side plate 1012 of the anode flow channel and the bottom of the anode flow channel 101 are all 90 degrees; the height difference between the two side plates of the adjacent anode flow channels 101 is kept constant.

Cathode runners 201 with the constant width of 1mm and cathode ridgeplates 202 with the constant width of 1mm are alternately arranged on the cathode plate 2 in parallel; the height of the cathode flow channel left side plate 2011 and the height of the cathode flow channel right side plate 2012 are respectively changed between 0.75mm and 0.25mm alternately; the included angles between the cathode flow channel left side plate 2011, the cathode flow channel right side plate 2012 and the bottom of the cathode flow channel 201 are all 90 degrees; the difference in height between the two side plates of the adjacent cathode flow channels 201 is kept constant.

The membrane electrode assembly 3 is arranged between the anode plate 1 and the cathode plate 2, the lower surface of the anode plate 1 with the wave-shaped structure is meshed with the upper surface of the membrane electrode assembly 3, and the upper surface of the cathode plate 2 with the wave-shaped structure is meshed with the lower surface of the membrane electrode assembly 3;

as shown in fig. 3, a stack including the above-described wavy fuel cell unit cells, which is formed by stacking a certain number of fuel cell units in the cell height direction, is formed in such a manner that a cathode plate 2 positioned in an upper layer unit cell and an anode plate 1 positioned in a lower layer unit cell are joined by laser welding. The anode cooling flow channels 103 and the cathode cooling flow channels 203 on the anode plate 1 and the cathode plate 2 jointly form a stack cooling flow channel 4 with a closed rectangular cross section.

The electric pile also comprises an anode gas inlet channel 5, an anode gas outlet channel 6, a cathode gas inlet channel 7, a cathode gas outlet channel 8, a cooling liquid inlet channel 9 and a cooling liquid outlet channel 10. Each single cell in the stack shares the above-described channel.

Compared with the common single cell, the single cell in the embodiment has the advantages that only one side of the anode runner 101 and the cathode runner 201, which is in contact with the membrane electrode assembly 3, is changed into an inclined plane from the original plane, and the reaction area of the membrane electrode assembly is increased, so that the power density of the fuel cell is improved, and by taking a fuel cell stack with the output power of 100kW and the mass of 50kg as an example, by adopting the fuel cell stack with the structure of the embodiment, the power density can be theoretically improved by 0.236kW/kg under the condition that the quality change of the fuel cell stack caused by the wavy membrane electrode assembly is ignored.

Example 2

As shown in fig. 4 and 5, a wave-shaped fuel cell single cell comprises an anode plate 1, a cathode plate 2 and a membrane electrode assembly 3, wherein the anode plate 1 adopts a wave-shaped structural design, a plurality of anode flow channels 101 and anode ridges 102 are alternately arranged on the anode plate 1 in parallel, the cathode plate 2 adopts a wave-shaped structural design mutually meshed with the anode plate 1, a plurality of cathode flow channels 201 and cathode ridges 202 are alternately arranged on the cathode plate in parallel, and the anode flow channels 101 and the cathode flow channels 201 are mutually parallel. The membrane electrode assembly 3 is arranged between the anode plate 1 and the cathode plate 2, and the whole single cell is in a wave-shaped structure along the width direction of the flow channel.

The anode plate 1 and the cathode plate 2 are both manufactured by adopting a metal plate stamping forming process, and are obtained by blanking, stamping, punching, trimming and other processes of a metal alloy sheet with the thickness of 0.1 mm. The reaction area of the membrane electrode assembly 3 is formed by hot-pressing and attaching a proton exchange membrane coated with a catalyst, a cathode gas diffusion layer and an anode gas diffusion layer, and the frame is obtained by blanking, hot-pressing, punching, trimming and the like of a flexible PET material with the thickness of 0.2 mm.

Anode runners 101 with the constant width of 1mm and anode ridgeplates 102 with the constant width of 1mm are alternately arranged on the anode plate 1 in parallel; the height of the left plate 1011 of the anode flow channel and the height 1012 of the right plate of the anode flow channel are respectively 0.25mm and 0.75 mm; the included angles of the left side plate 1011 of the anode flow channel, the right side plate 1012 of the anode flow channel and the bottom of the anode flow channel 101 are all 90 degrees; the height difference between the two side plates of the adjacent anode flow channels 101 is kept constant.

Cathode runners 201 with the constant width of 1mm and cathode ridgeplates 202 with the constant width of 1mm are alternately arranged on the cathode plate 2 in parallel; the height of the cathode flow channel left side plate 2011 and the height of the cathode flow channel right side plate 2012 are 0.75mm and 0.25mm respectively; the included angles between the cathode flow channel left side plate 2011, the cathode flow channel right side plate 2012 and the bottom of the cathode flow channel 201 are all 90 degrees; the difference in height between the two side plates of the adjacent cathode flow channels 201 is kept constant.

The membrane electrode assembly 3 is arranged between the anode plate 1 and the cathode plate 2, the lower surface of the anode plate 1 with the wave-shaped structure is meshed with the upper surface of the membrane electrode assembly 3, and the upper surface of the cathode plate 2 with the wave-shaped structure is meshed with the lower surface of the membrane electrode assembly 3;

as shown in fig. 6, a stack comprising the above-described wavy fuel cell unit cells, which is formed by stacking a certain number of fuel cell units in the cell height direction, wherein a cathode plate 2 positioned in an upper layer unit cell and an anode plate 1 positioned in a lower layer unit cell in the stack are connected by laser welding. The anode cooling flow channels 103 and the cathode cooling flow channels 203 on the anode plate 1 and the cathode plate 2 jointly form a stack cooling flow channel 4 with a closed rhombic section.

The electric pile also comprises an anode gas inlet channel 5, an anode gas outlet channel 6, a cathode gas inlet channel 7, a cathode gas outlet channel 8, a cooling liquid inlet channel 9 and a cooling liquid outlet channel 10. Each single cell in the stack shares the above-described channel.

Compared with a common single cell, in the single cell in the embodiment, the original plane of one side of the anode runner 101 and the cathode runner 201 contacting the membrane electrode assembly 3 is changed into an inclined plane, and the plane of the anode ridge plate 102 and the plane of the cathode ridge plate 202 are also changed into an inclined plane, so that the reaction area of the membrane electrode assembly is increased, and the power density of the fuel cell is improved, and by taking a fuel cell stack with 100kW output power and 50kg mass as an example, the power density of the fuel cell stack adopting the structure of the embodiment can be theoretically improved by 0.236kW/kg under the condition that the change of the mass of the fuel cell stack caused by the wavy membrane electrode assembly is ignored.

The relevant parameters in the above embodiments are only for better describing the specific content of the work to the technologist, and the wave-shaped structure with different performance can be easily obtained by adjusting the parameters. Accordingly, the scope of the present invention includes, but is not limited to, the above-described embodiments.