Fuel Cell Technology

Fuel Cell Technology

Fuel Cells are a hot topic these days between the soon to come fuel cell cars that

Toyota and Honda plan on unveiling this year and the $1.2 billion president Bush

announced he would dedicate to fuel cell research during his State of the Union address.

The least efficient of these electrochemical energy converters are at least as efficient as

internal combustion engines and many are doubly as efficient when using special

techniques. Exhaust from fuel cells is extremely clean, often consisting only of water.

Although some use hydrocarbons, fuel cells give off around one one-hundredth of the

pollutants given off by an internal combustion engine using the same amount of fuel

(Fuel Cell Technology Handbook). Unfortunately some engineering and infrastructure

problems, especially costs, are keeping fuel cells from commercial viability right now.

A Brief History of Fuel Cell Technology

The ideas behind fuel cells have existed for around one hundred and sixty years.

Sir William Grove is cited as the first person to think that one could produce a current by

reversing the electrolysis of water (SAE.org). However, it was until fifty years later that

the term ‘fuel cell’ was coined by two researchers, Charles Langer and Ludwig Mond,

trying to invent the first viable fuel cell fueled by coal gas (SAE.org). The technology

lay dormant for most of the early twentieth century because of great advances in the use

of internal combustion engines. It wasn’t until 1959 that practical fuel cells were first

demonstrated. NASA quickly took interest in the technology for the Apollo missions and

since there has been a renaissance in research and development of fuel cells. Currently,

there are on the order of hundreds of fuel cell generators in operation world wide, cities

such as L.A., Chicago, and New York, own fuel cell powered public transit vehicles, and

both Honda and Toyota plan on making fuel cell powered car commercially available

within one year (fuelcells.org).

How a Fuel Cell Works

A fuel cell is an energy converter that uses electrochemical energy to create an

electric current. Because they use electrochemistry for power, fuel cells are often likened

to batteries that run on fuel. This description is not a bad one, but to be more precise, a

fuel cell creates direct current by ionizing a fuel and then moving those ions through a

circuit. The three main components are the anode (negatively charged piece), cathode

(positively charge piece), and electrolyte (medium for the transfer of ions). Fuel,

typically hydrogen, is ionized at the anode by a catalyst (substance that can change an

interaction, but does not change the chemistry of it).