ELECTROLYTE FEED STRUCTURE FOR MATRIX FUEL CELL

摘要

PURPOSE:To feed electrolyte through simple structure and to improve the operational reliability by employing an enclosed space for the electrolyte sump and previously encapsulating necessary electrolyte. CONSTITUTION:An electrolyte sump 10 is formed as a closed space for a matrix type fuel cell incorporated in a cell, where electrolyte 7 has been encapsulated previously while at least a portion of a border wall 11 between said sump 10 and a region 4a for passing gas is composed of such material as having ventilation performance for gas while liquid repellent performance for electrolyte to maintain the pressure in said sump 10 approximately same with the pressure of reaction gas to be fed to the fuel cell. Consequently many conventional pipes are not required to be led out from the sump to simplify the entire construction of cell. While since electrolyte is fed automatically from an electrolyte sump maintained at approximately same pressure with that of the reaction gas to the matrix layer, the cell can be operated continuously under ideal conditions.