Internal manifolded molten carbonate fuel cell stack

Claim 1

In a generally rectangular molten carbonate fuel cell stack comprising a plurality of molten carbonate fuel cell units, each said fuel cell unit comprising an anode and a cathode, an alkali metal carbonates electrolyte in contact with one side of said anode and an alkali metal carbonates electrolyte in contact with an opposite facing side of said cathode, and a separator plate separating said cell unit between said anode and cathode forming an anode chamber between one side of said separator plate and said anode and a cathode chamber between the opposite side of said separator plate and said cathode, the improvement comprising; said electrolytes and said separator plates extending to the edge of said fuel cell stack, said separator plates having a flattened peripheral wet seal structure extending to contact said electrolytes on each side of said separator plates completely around their periphery forming a separator plate/eleotrolyte wet seal under cell operating conditions, said electrolytes and said separator plates each having an aligned perforation in each corner area, each said perforation being surrounded by a flattened manifold wet seal structure extending to contact said electrolytes on each side of said separator plates forming a separator plate/electrolyte wet seal under cell operating conditions to form a gas manifold in each corner area extending through said cell stack, conduits through said extended manifold wet seal structure providing gas communication between one of said manifolds at each end of said separator plates and said anode chambers on one side of said separator plates and conduits through said extended manifold wet seal structure providing gas communication between the other of said manifolds at each end of said separator plates and said cathode chambers on the other side of said separator plates, thereby providing internal manifolding of fuel and oxidant gases to each said unit fuel cell in said fuel cell stack.