What is a Fuel Cell?

What is a fuel cell? 75% of North American’s would not be able to answer that question. Is there truly that much mystery surrounding fuel cells? Or are we just completely uninformed on what these devices do. Essentially a fuel cell is very similar to that of a regular, everyday battery. The main difference of course is that these fuel cells will not require any form of charging. It will provide itself with power as long as it receives its desired fuel source. A fuel cell is made up of two electrodes crammed around an electrolyte. When hydrogen flows over one electrode and oxygen over the other, the fuel cell will generate electricity, water, heat or all three. There are many different combinations of fuel sources. For example; a hydrogen cell requires hydrogen as fuel and oxygen as an oxidant.

Fuel cells run on mainly hydrogen; one of the simplest and most plentiful elements of gas on our planet. The principle design for the fuel cell was discovered by a German scientist named Christian Friedrich Schönbein in the summer of 1838 and officially published in the January 1839. Through years of further advancement, the fuel cell has reached a new plateau of technology and efficiency. Fuel Cell efficiency is solely dependent upon the amount of power being drawn from it. Generally, the more power drawn, then the lower the efficiency of the fuel cell is. A typical cell which runs at 0.7 V will have an efficiency of approximately 50%, which means 50% of the energy it generates converts into electrical energy and the other 50% would most likely be converted into heat

The production of Hydrogen is a large and always expanding global industry. Roughly 50 million metric tons were produced in 2004 alone. Hydrogen production increases by roughly 10-15% every year, meaning the demand for hydrogen and hydrogen based fuel cells as an energy alternative will continue to rise. So why should we continue to use Hydrogen fuel cells? Why are the governments working with universities, public organizations and private companies to design and plan for a practical way of using fuel cells for energy? Simply because we absolutely need this source of energy, we will not be able to survive on this planet long enough if we continue to eat up our renewable stock of resources. Using this renewable energy will not only help the environment but in the end save you a lot of money. It looks like Hydrogen fuel cells are the bright future of energy production. So now the next time someone asks what is a fuel cell, you will very well have an answer for them.