摘要 |
A fuel cell stack comprising a plurality of serially-connected fuel cell stages, each stage comprising a plurality of fuel cells arranged electrically in parallel such that each stage has the voltage drop of a single fuel cell but current output defined by the total cell area. The assembled stack thus comprises essentially a plurality of internal fuel cell stacks arranged in parallel, each stack having the same voltage, and the stack currents being additive. The total voltage is the same as for a prior art stack of the same number of stages, but the current and hence the power output is multiplied over that of a single-cell stack by the number of internal fuel cell stacks. Preferably, each stage is a cassette including a plurality of windows for receiving the individual fuel cell units; a plurality of anode and cathode interconnects; and a single separator plate.
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