Patents by Inventor Yasuaki Tanimura

Yasuaki Tanimura has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11749810
    Abstract: A gas diffusion layer comprises a carbon sheet and a microporous layer disposed on at least one surface of the carbon sheet, and meeting the requirement “C is equal to or greater than 0”, wherein: C, referred to as “index for simultaneous realization of a required in-plane oxygen permeation coefficient and electrical resistance”, is calculated by subtracting the product of B multiplied by 60 from A and adding 310 to the difference, A, is the rate of oxygen permeation in an in-plane direction in a gas diffusion layer that occurs when a pressure of 0.5 MPa is applied in the through-plane direction to a surface of the gas diffusion layer to compress an arbitrarily selected region having a width of 10 mm and a depth of 3 mm in the gas diffusion layer, and B is the “electrical resistance” that occurs when the gas diffusion layer is compressed by applying a pressure of 2 MPa in the through-plane direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: September 5, 2023
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Umi Yamamoto, Masamichi Utsunomiya, Isamu Shigemoto, Yasuaki Tanimura
  • Patent number: 11621426
    Abstract: The present invention provides a micro-porous layer which provides a fuel battery having high productivity, high power generation performance, and high durability. The present invention provides a micro-porous layer including fibrous carbohydrate having a fiber diameter of 5 nm-10 ?m and an aspect ratio of 10 or more. The carbohydrate has an oxygen/carbon element ratio of 0.02 or more.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 4, 2023
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Masamichi Utsunomiya, Kentaro Kajiwara, Fumitaka Watanabe, Yasuaki Tanimura
  • Patent number: 11329293
    Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to provide: a method for producing a gas diffusion electrode base which enables the achievement of a gas diffusion electrode base that has a microporous layer with small surface roughness and is not susceptible to damaging an electrolyte membrane; and a gas diffusion electrode base that has a microporous layer with small surface roughness and is not susceptible to damaging an electrolyte membrane. For the purpose of achieving the above-described purpose, the present invention has the configuration described below. Namely, a specific gas diffusion electrode base which has a carbon sheet and a microporous layer, and wherein the carbon sheet is porous and the DBP oil absorption of a carbon powder contained in the microporous layer is 70-155 ml/100 g.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 10, 2022
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Masamichi Utsunomiya, Yasuaki Tanimura, Toshiya Kamae
  • Patent number: 11309546
    Abstract: A low-cost gas diffusion electrode is described that overcomes defects of conventional techniques, that achieves both dry-up resistance and flooding resistance, and that has satisfactory power generation performance, where the gas diffusion electrode includes a conductive porous substrate, and a microporous layer containing conductive fine particles and provided on at least one surface of the conductive porous substrate. The gas diffusion electrode has, based on the number of fine pores having an area of 0.25 ?m2 or more that are observed in a cross section of the microporous layer in a thickness direction, a percentage of fine pores having a circularity of 0.5 or more of 50% or more and 100% or less.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2019
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2022
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Yasuaki Tanimura, Yasutaka Okano, Masamichi Utsunomiya
  • Patent number: 11302951
    Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to provide an electrode which is used as a liquid flow-through device electrode and in which liquid flow-through resistance is reduced and the utilization efficiency of carbon fiber is enhanced. Another object of the present invention is to provide a redox flow battery having excellent charge-discharge performance by use of the electrode which is used for the liquid flow-through device. The present invention provides an electrode for a liquid flow-through device, the electrode essentially consisting of a carbon fiber nonwoven fabric, having a thickness of more than 0.40 mm, and having a through-hole disposed therein, or a non-through-hole disposed on one surface or both surfaces of the electrode.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 30, 2017
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2022
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Kentaro Kajiwara, Masamichi Utsunomiya, Fumitaka Watanabe, Yasuaki Tanimura
  • Publication number: 20220037674
    Abstract: A gas diffusion layer comprises a carbon sheet and a microporous layer disposed on at least one surface of the carbon sheet, and meeting the requirement “C is equal to or greater than 0”, wherein: C, referred to as “index for simultaneous realization of a required in-plane oxygen permeation coefficient and electrical resistance”, is calculated by subtracting the product of B multiplied by 60 from A and adding 310 to the difference, A, is the rate of oxygen permeation in an in-plane direction in a gas diffusion layer that occurs when a pressure of 0.5 MPa is applied in the through-plane direction to a surface of the gas diffusion layer to compress an arbitrarily selected region having a width of 10 mm and a depth of 3 mm in the gas diffusion layer, and B is the “electrical resistance” that occurs when the gas diffusion layer is compressed by applying a pressure of 2 MPa in the through-plane direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2019
    Publication date: February 3, 2022
    Applicant: Toray Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: Umi Yamamoto, Masamichi Utsunomiya, Isamu Shigemoto, Yasuaki Tanimura
  • Publication number: 20220006097
    Abstract: A low-cost gas diffusion electrode is described that overcomes defects of conventional techniques, that achieves both dry-up resistance and flooding resistance, and that has satisfactory power generation performance, where the gas diffusion electrode includes a conductive porous substrate, and a microporous layer containing conductive fine particles and provided on at least one surface of the conductive porous substrate. The gas diffusion electrode has, based on the number of fine pores having an area of 0.25 ?m2 or more that are observed in a cross section of the microporous layer in a thickness direction, a percentage of fine pores having a circularity of 0.5 or more of 50% or more and 100% or less.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 5, 2019
    Publication date: January 6, 2022
    Applicant: Toray Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: Yasuaki Tanimura, Yasutaka Okano, Masamichi Utsunomiya
  • Publication number: 20210305584
    Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to provide: a method for producing a gas diffusion electrode base which enables the achievement of a gas diffusion electrode base that has a microporous layer with small surface roughness and is not susceptible to damaging an electrolyte membrane; and a gas diffusion electrode base that has a microporous layer with small surface roughness and is not susceptible to damaging an electrolyte membrane. For the purpose of achieving the above-described purpose, the present invention has the configuration described below. Namely, a specific gas diffusion electrode base which has a carbon sheet and a microporous layer, and wherein the carbon sheet is porous and the DBP oil absorption of a carbon powder contained in the microporous layer is 70-155 ml/100 g.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 11, 2021
    Publication date: September 30, 2021
    Applicant: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Masamichi UTSUNOMIYA, Yasuaki TANIMURA, Toshiya KAMAE
  • Patent number: 10950867
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide an electrode which is used for a liquid flow-through device and in which liquid flow-through resistance is reduced and the utilization efficiency of the surface of carbon fiber is enhanced. Another object of the present invention is to provide a redox flow battery having excellent charge-discharge performance by use of the electrode which is used for the liquid flow-through device. The present invention provides an electrode to be used for a liquid flow-through device, the electrode including a plurality of sheets of carbon fiber nonwoven fabric each having irregularities on a surface of the sheet of carbon fiber nonwoven fabric being stacked or each having a through-hole on the carbon fiber sheet being stacked, and having inside of the electrode a plurality of gaps which is formed by recesses of the irregularities or the through-hole and is not opened in a thickness direction.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 11, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Kentaro Kajiwara, Masamichi Utsunomiya, Fumitaka Watanabe, Yasuaki Tanimura
  • Patent number: 10950868
    Abstract: A gas diffusion electrode in which a microporous layer is provided on at least one surface of a conductive porous substrate, wherein the areas obtained by dividing the cross section perpendicular to the plane of the microporous layer into three equal parts in the thickness direction are a first area, a second area, and a third area, with respect to the conductive porous substrate side, the fluorine strength of the third area being 0.8 to 1.2 times the fluorine strength of the second area.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Kazuyo Shigeta, Masamichi Utsunomiya, Yasutaka Okano, Yasuaki Tanimura, Toshiya Kamae
  • Patent number: 10854887
    Abstract: A porous carbon sheet includes a carbon fiber and a binding material, wherein when in a measured surface depth distribution, a ratio of an area of a portion having a depth of 20 ?m or less in a measured area of one surface is a surface layer area ratio X, and a ratio of an area of a portion having a depth of 20 ?m or less in a measured area of another surface is a surface layer area ratio Y, the surface layer area ratio X is larger than the surface layer area ratio Y, and a difference between the surface layer area ratios is 3% or more and 12% or less.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 7, 2015
    Date of Patent: December 1, 2020
    Assignee: Toray Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: Yasuaki Tanimura, Takashi Chida, Toru Sugahara, Masamichi Utsunomiya, Toshiya Kamae, Katsuya Sode, Takashi Ando
  • Patent number: 10818934
    Abstract: A gas diffusion electrode has a microporous layer on at least one surface of an electrical conducting porous substrate. The microporous layer has at least a first microporous layer in contact with the electrical conducting porous substrate, and a second microporous layer. The gas diffusion electrode has a pore size distribution with a peak at least in a first region of 10 ?m or more and 100 ?m or less, a second region of 0.2 ?m or more and less than 1.0 ?m, and a third region of 0.050 ?m or more and less than 0.2 ?m. The total volume of the pores in the second region is 10% or more and 40% or less of the total volume of the pores in the first region, and the total volume of the pores in the third region is 40% or more and 80% or less of the total volume of the pores in the second region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 27, 2020
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Toru Miyake, Masamichi Utsunomiya, Yasuaki Tanimura, Kazuyo Shigeta
  • Patent number: 10804542
    Abstract: A gas diffusion electrode substrate has an electrically conductive porous substrate and a microporous layer-1 on one side of the electrically conductive porous substrate. The microporous layer-1 includes a dense portion A and a dense portion B. The dense portion A is a region containing a fluorine resin and a carbonaceous powder having a primary particle size of 20 nm to 39 nm. The dense portion A has a thickness of 30% to 100% with respect to the thickness of the microporous layer-1 as 100% and a width of 10 ?m to 200 ?m. The dense portion B is a region containing a fluorine resin and a carbonaceous powder having a primary particle size of 40 nm to 70 nm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 2017
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2020
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Masamichi Utsunomiya, Yasuaki Tanimura, Toshiya Kamae, Junichi Urai
  • Patent number: 10804544
    Abstract: A gas diffusion electrode substrate that is used in a fuel cell and is constituted by an electrode substrate and microporous parts, in which a microporous part (A) is formed on one surface of the electrode substrate with a thickness in the range of 10 ?m or more and 60 ?m or less, and in the gas diffusion electrode substrate, the pore volume of pores with a pore size of 0.1 ?m or more and less than 10 ?m is within the range of 0.9 times or more and 5 times or less of the pore volume of pores with a pore size of 10 ?m or more and less than 100 ?m.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: October 13, 2020
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Yasuaki Tanimura, Masamichi Utsunomiya, Toshiya Kamae, Yasutaka Okano
  • Publication number: 20200313200
    Abstract: The present invention provides a micro-porous layer which provides a fuel battery having high productivity, high power generation performance, and high durability. The present invention provides a micro-porous layer including fibrous carbohydrate having a fiber diameter of 5 nm-10 ?m and an aspect ratio of 10 or more. The carbohydrate has an oxygen/carbon element ratio of 0.02 or more.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 21, 2018
    Publication date: October 1, 2020
    Applicant: Toray Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: Masamichi Utsunomiya, Kentaro Kajiwara, Fumitaka Watanabe, Yasuaki Tanimura
  • Patent number: 10790516
    Abstract: A gas diffusion electrode includes a porous carbon electrode substrate and a microporous layer(s) provided at least on one surface of the porous carbon electrode substrate. The porous carbon electrode substrate is composed of carbon short fibers bonded with a resin carbide. When the region of the porous carbon electrode substrate, extending from a plane that has a 50% filling rate and is closest to one surface of the substrate to a plane that has the 50% filling rate and is closest to the other surface thereof, is trisected in the through-plane direction to obtain three layers, a layer located closer to one surface has a layer filling rate different from the layer filling rate of the layer located closer to the other surface. The microporous layer has a thickness under an added pressure of 0.15 MPa of from 28 to 45 ?m, and has a thickness under an added pressure of 2 MPa of from 25 to 35 ?m.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: September 29, 2020
    Assignee: Toray Industries, Inc.
    Inventors: Yasutaka Okano, Junichi Urai, Yasuaki Tanimura, Masamichi Utsunomiya
  • Patent number: 10461334
    Abstract: A gas diffusion electrode has a microporous layer on at least one surface of an electroconductive porous substrate. The microporous layer has a first microporous layer in contact with the electroconductive porous substrate, and a dense layer in contact with the first microporous layer. The thickness of the dense layer is at least 1 ?m. The average number density B of pores having a pore diameter of 0.15-1 ?m in the dense layer is at least 1.3A, where A is the average number density of pores having a pore diameter of 0.15-1 ?m in the microporous layer disposed on at least one surface of the electroconductive porous substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 16, 2016
    Date of Patent: October 29, 2019
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Yasuaki Tanimura, Masamichi Utsunomiya, Michio Wakatabe, Toshiya Kamae
  • Publication number: 20190312295
    Abstract: The purpose of the present invention is to provide an electrode which is used as a liquid flow-through device electrode and in which liquid flow-through resistance is reduced and the utilization efficiency of carbon fiber is enhanced. Another object of the present invention is to provide a redox flow battery having excellent charge-discharge performance by use of the electrode which is used for the liquid flow-through device. The present invention provides an electrode for a liquid flow-through device, the electrode essentially consisting of a carbon fiber nonwoven fabric, having a thickness of more than 0.40 mm, and having a through-hole disposed therein, or a non-through-hole disposed on one surface or both surfaces of the electrode.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 30, 2017
    Publication date: October 10, 2019
    Applicant: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Kentaro KAJIWARA, Masamichi UTSUNOMIYA, Fumitaka WATANABE, Yasuaki TANIMURA
  • Patent number: 10411269
    Abstract: A gas diffusion electrode substrate that is used in a fuel cell and is constituted by an electrode substrate and microporous parts, in which a microporous part (A) is formed on one surface of the electrode substrate, and a microporous part (B) is formed in a part of the inside of the electrode substrate, the gas diffusion electrode substrate having a part in which the microporous part (B) is continuously present from the electrode substrate surface on the side on which the microporous part (A) is formed to a position near the electrode substrate surface on the opposite side, and a part in which pores are continuously distributed from the electrode substrate surface on the side on which the microporous part A is formed to the electrode substrate surface on the opposite side.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 17, 2015
    Date of Patent: September 10, 2019
    Assignee: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Yasuaki Tanimura, Masamichi Utsunomiya, Toshiya Kamae
  • Publication number: 20190260033
    Abstract: An object of the present invention is to provide an electrode which is used for a liquid flow-through device and in which liquid flow-through resistance is reduced and the utilization efficiency of the surface of carbon fiber is enhanced. Another object of the present invention is to provide a redox flow battery having excellent charge-discharge performance by use of the electrode which is used for the liquid flow-through device. The present invention provides an electrode to be used for a liquid flow-through device, the electrode including a plurality of sheets of carbon fiber nonwoven fabric each having irregularities on a surface of the sheet of carbon fiber nonwoven fabric being stacked or each having a through-hole on the carbon fiber sheet being stacked, and having inside of the electrode a plurality of gaps which is formed by recesses of the irregularities or the through-hole and is not opened in a thickness direction.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 11, 2017
    Publication date: August 22, 2019
    Applicant: TORAY INDUSTRIES, INC.
    Inventors: Kentaro KAJIWARA, Masamichi UTSUNOMIYA, Fumitaka WATANABE, Yasuaki TANIMURA