Fuel Cells

Fuel Cell is an electrochemical device that combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, with water and heat as its by-product. Since the conversion of the fuel to energy takes place via an electrochemical process, not combustion, the process is clean, quiet and highly efficient two to three times more efficient than fuel burning.

As long as fuel is supplied, the fuel cell will continue to generate power. And now we go for the Fuel part. Hydrogen is a medium for storing energy. To be useful as an energy carrier, all fuels (such as gasoline and natural gas), have a characteristic of being volatile.

The main reason to employ fuel cells instead of combusting hydrogen has to do with efficiency. Anytime a fuel is ignited and burned the overall efficiency is limited by the laws of physics, to around 10%. This is due to efficiency losses associated with heat and the additional steps necessary before the fuel is transformed into useable energy.

A fuel cell directly converts the hydrogen fuel into electricity and is therefore inherently more efficient. A fuel cell skips the steps, associated with combustion generation, of first converting the fuel into heat, then mechanical energy and finally into energy. In an automobile engine 100 standard cubic feet of hydrogen would power the car for about 6 to 12 miles. That same amount of hydrogen in a fuel cell powered car could increase the distance traveled from 20 to 30 kms.

Fuel cells may soon generate electrical power for all sorts of devices we use every day.
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Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Fuel Cells
• electrical power
• Hydrogen