The present invention relates to fuel cell technology. In particular, the invention relates to improved thermal management techniques for use in fuel cells.
A fuel cell electrochemically combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity. Fuel cell evolution so far has concentrated on large-scale applications such as industrial size generators for electrical power back-up.
Consumer electronics devices and other portable electrical power applications currently rely on lithium ion and similar battery technologies. Demand for alternatives to these conventional battery technologies increases. The fuel cell industry is racing to produce a fuel cell small enough to power a portable consumer electronics device, such as a laptop computer.
Byproducts of the energy-generating electrochemical reaction in a fuel cell include water vapor and carbon dioxide. The electro-chemical reaction also generates heat. In a stack plate fuel cell where numerous plates are stacked together and sandwich multiple electro-chemical layers, heat dissipation from internal portions of the stack remains a challenge. Current heat management techniques rely on thermal cooling layers disposed adjacent to each electro-chemical layer and between each set of plates. For a fuel cell having a stack of twenty plates and nineteen electro-chemistry layers, conventional heat removal techniques thus demand nineteen cooling layers. These intermittent heat dissipation layers significantly increase the fuel cell package thickness, volume, and size.
In view of the foregoing, alternative techniques to manage heat within a fuel cell would be desirable. In addition, techniques that reduce package size would be highly beneficial.