Fuel Cells: Alternate Energy Source

Fuel cells have been around for much longer than most people realize. Fuel cells have been known to science for around the past 150 years. In 1838, William Robert Grove had an improved wet-cell battery, known as the ‘Grove Cell’. His wet-cell battery used the concept used today for fuel cells.

In 1939, Francis Thomas Bacon created an alkali electrolyte fuel cell that was reliable enough to be used in 1958 as the Apollo spacecraft’s fuel cells. However, a truly workable fuel cell was not demonstrated until 1959.

After fuel cell use in NASA spacecraft, interest in fuel cells died down until the 1990’s, when research and development in fuel cells started up again in full force.

The fuel cell has competition in energy conversion, but has advantages over standard internal combustion engines, which produce pollution when the gasoline is burned, and only has an efficiency rating of 20%. This means that only 20% of the energy stored in gasoline is being us

powering cars. Fuel Cells have a DC voltage (Direct Current) and can be used for any of our electrical needs.

Fuel cell powered cars can reach an efficiency of closer to 50%. Since fuel cells don’t burn gasoline, they are much more efficient than combustion engines. The byproduct of fuel cells is water and heat, compared to carbon dioxide of combustion engines, which also lowers the pollution emitted by fuel cell cars.

One problem with fuel cell powered cars is that hydrogen is not easily stored in them. For convenience, it would be easier to use a reformer, which would turn a natural gas into hydrogen. One possibility for this would be to use methanol. Methanol is a liquid fuel with some properties similar to those of gasoline. It is easy to transport and distribute, and may be used to power the fuel cells. Companies are currently working on a way for better hydrogen storage so as to have no need for a reformer.

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