Few Facts About Fuel Cells

Fuel cell used in Car.

A fuel cell is a device that uses hydrogen and oxygen to create electricity by an electrochemical process.  A fuel cell consists of two electrodes a negative and a positive electrode which is sandwiched around an electrolyte. Fuel cells have been hot topics in discussions about renewable energy themselves, rather they are an efficient way of generating electricity with low emissions.

Some of the facts about fuel cells are:

1. Their electric efficiency is very high, especially under partial load.
2. They are extremely clean. If hydrogen is used, the only product is pure water, but even if hydrocarbons are used no pollutants are emitted.
3. They do not have any moving parts and are therefore quiet.
4. Different types of fuel cells allow different fuels to be used – from pure hydrogen to natural gas, methanol, biogas and testified coal.
5. Their modular design allows them to be built according to specific power requirements.
6. At present fuel cells are a potentially disruptive technology since it is still unclear whether they can develop quickly enough with performance characteristics to meet the needs.
7. The pre commercialization stage and the future development of this technology remain uncertain. It remains about their commercialization and their costs remain high compared to existing incumbent technologies.
8. A long transition process will be required before the hydrogen economy becomes a reality. In the long term there will be an obvious co-evolution between the successful commercialization of fuel cells and the deployment of hydrogen energy networks.

Fuel cell can be used in many ways. Stationary applications as cogeneration units, mobile applications in the transport sector hydrogen cars and small fuel cells for portable appliances notebook power supplies etc are some of the most common examples.