Here is a selection of fuel cell uses:. Fuel cells act as power sources for a variety of commercial, industrial and residential applications. These range from homes to spacecraft and research stations. Fuel cells are particularly useful for remote locations due to their lack of moving parts, which means they are highly reliable and unlikely to fail.
Ideal conditions provide up to Fuel cells can be made even more efficient through cogeneration. This is where fuel cell systems are used to generate power while the waste heat produced is used to heat buildings or power cooling systems. However, these systems can be costly and have a relatively short lifetime as well as taking up space with the need for a hot water storage tank.
Fuel cells can be used for a variety of transport applications, from automobiles to buses, ships, trains and aircraft. Fuel cells are also being incorporated into motorcycles, bicycles and scooters.
However, to be a truly viable option, many of the challenges around hydrogen storage, transport and extraction will need to be addressed. Despite the challenges around fuel cell automobiles, fuel cell buses are already proving effective, while forklift trucks are also a key driver of hydrogen fuel demand. Forklifts are of particular interest since they often need to operate indoors where emissions need to be controlled. This means that electric forklifts are often used, but fuel cells provide benefits over battery power, including faster refuelling and a lack of degradation at low operating temperatures, such as in refrigerated warehouses.
Fuel cells have also been used for manned aerial vehicles, often using a combination of technologies, such as a proton exchange membrane fuel cell with a battery hybrid as back-up during testing. Fuel cells are being more widely deployed in unmanned aerial vehicles as well as for providing auxiliary power on aircraft, replacing fossil fuels for applications such as starting the engines and powering on-board electrics.
Fuel cells have also been used for tourist boats on the canals of Amsterdam and the German and Italian navies have used fuel cells to allow submarines to remain submerged for weeks, while also improving silent running operations.
Portable fuel cell systems are classified as weighing less than 10kg and producing under 5kW of power. These types of cell have a wide range of applications for powering small devices of w and for larger power generation of kW for remote locations. The smaller microfuel cells are aiming to reach markets such as mobile devices and laptops with advantages including energy density and weight reduction when compared to lithium ion batteries.
Market penetration would require some further developments in fuel cell technology to reduce costs, but the promise of longer usage times between charging is appealing. Larger scale portable power shows promise for the leisure sector, the military and geographically remote industrial applications such as weather stations.
The advantages for these larger, yet still portable, cell stacks is the amount of power that can be generated per weight compared to batteries. The uses listed above are just some of the examples of where fuel cells could be used. Other applications include power for base stations and cell sites, distributed power generation, emergency power systems as a back-up for when other systems fail, telecommunications, base load power plants, solar hydrogen fuel cell water heating, portable charging stations for small electronic devices, small heating appliances, food preservation for shipping containers exhausting the oxygen through power generation , and electrochemical sensors.
The first fuel cells were invented in by Sir William Grove , however it was over a century later until fuel cells were first used commercially, following the invention of the hydrogen oxygen fuel cell by Francis Thomas Bacon in The exact lifetime of a fuel cell depends on what it is being used for, much as with how batteries drain at different rates depending on application.
However, as an example, hydrogen fuel cell cars can now average between and miles before they need refuelling. The fuel cell stacks in cars are designed to last for the lifetime of the vehicle, which is around , to , miles. Once they have completed their lifespan, fuel cells can be disassembled and the materials recycled. The abundance of hydrogen in the universe means that hydrogen fuel cells are a renewable source of energy.
They are also a clean method of energy production, although there are still some concerns over the use of fossil fuels for hydrogen extraction as well as the potential carbon footprint associated with hydrogen transportation, for example.
However, hydrogen fuel cell technology has the potential to be a completely green and renewable source of power, with the only by-products being heat which can be used elsewhere and water. In addition, fuel cells do not run down or need recharging like batteries, so long as there is a constant source of fuel and oxygen. Hydrogen has the highest flammability range and lowest ignition energy point of any fuel, leading to obvious concerns over the safety of hydrogen fuel cells.
Part of the reason for this is the speed at which hydrogen dissipates up into the air. There have also been tests done on hydrogen fuel tanks in vehicles, simulating a collision and being shot at point blank range. The cathode exhaust supplies heat to warm the incoming fuel and externally to the customer for facility heating and cooling or for making steam.
Because there is no combusting of fuel, virtually no harmful emissions are generated by the fuel cells. This results in power production that is almost entirely absent of smog-producing nitrogen oxide NOx , sulfur dioxide SOx that produces acid rain or particulate matter PM that can aggravate asthma. Important Cookie Information — This message will only appear once. This website uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
Investors Sales inquiry. How a fuel cell works Power from chemistry Fuel cells cleanly and efficiently convert chemical energy from hydrogen-rich fuels into electrical power and high-quality heat via an electrochemical process that is efficient and emits water rather than pollutants as there is no burning of the fuel.
So the overall efficiency of an automotive gas engine is about 20 percent. That is, only about 20 percent of the thermal-energy content of the gasoline is converted into mechanical work. A battery-powered electric car has a fairly high efficiency. This gives an overall efficiency of about 72 percent.
But that is not the whole story. The electricity used to power the car had to be generated somewhere. If it was generated at a power plant that used a combustion process rather than nuclear, hydroelectric, solar or wind , then only about 40 percent of the fuel required by the power plant was converted into electricity. The process of charging the car requires the conversion of alternating current AC power to direct current DC power.
This process has an efficiency of about 90 percent. So, if we look at the whole cycle, the efficiency of an electric car is 72 percent for the car, 40 percent for the power plant and 90 percent for charging the car. That gives an overall efficiency of 26 percent.
The overall efficiency varies considerably depending on what sort of power plant is used. If the electricity for the car is generated by a hydroelectric plant for instance, then it is basically free we didn't burn any fuel to generate it , and the efficiency of the electric car is about 65 percent.
Scientists are researching and refining designs to continue to boost fuel cell efficiency. One approach is to combine fuel cell and battery-powered vehicles. Ford Motors and Airstream are developing a concept vehicle powered by a hybrid fuel cell drivetrain named the HySeries Drive. Ford claims the vehicle has a fuel economy comparable to 41 miles per gallon. The vehicle uses a lithium battery to power the car, while the fuel cell recharges the battery. Fuel-cell vehicles are potentially as efficient as a battery-powered car that relies on a non-fuel-burning power plant.
But reaching that potential in a practical and affordable way might be difficult. In the next section, we will examine some of the challenges of making a fuel-cell energy system a reality. Nanoscale science may provide fuel cell developers with some much sought after answers. For example, gold is usually an unreactive metal. However, when reduced to nanometer size, gold particles can be as effective a catalyst as platinum.
Fuel cells might be the answer to our power problems, but first scientists will have to sort out a few major issues:. Chief among the problems associated with fuel cells is how expensive they are. Many of the component pieces of a fuel cell are costly. For PEMFC systems, proton exchange membranes, precious metal catalysts usually platinum , gas diffusion layers, and bipolar plates make up 70 percent of a system's cost [Source: Basic Research Needs for a Hydrogen Economy ].
In particular, researchers must either decrease the amount of platinum needed to act as a catalyst or find an alternative. Researchers must develop PEMFC membranes that are durable and can operate at temperatures greater than degrees Celsius and still function at sub-zero ambient temperatures. A degrees Celsius temperature target is required in order for a fuel cell to have a higher tolerance to impurities in fuel.
Because you start and stop a car relatively frequently, it is important for the membrane to remain stable under cycling conditions. Currently membranes tend to degrade while fuel cells cycle on and off, particularly as operating temperatures rise. Because PEMFC membranes must by hydrated in order to transfer hydrogen protons, researches must find a way to develop fuel cell systems that can continue to operate in sub-zero temperatures, low humidity environments and high operating temperatures.
At around 80 degrees Celsius, hydration is lost without a high-pressure hydration system. The SOFC has a related problem with durability. Solid oxide systems have issues with material corrosion. Seal integrity is also a major concern. The cost goal for SOFC? SOFC durability suffers after the cell repeatedly heats up to operating temperature and then cools down to room temperature.
The Department of Energy? In order for PEMFC vehicles to become a viable alternative for consumers, there must be a hydrogen generation and delivery infrastructure. This infrastructure might include pipelines, truck transport, fueling stations and hydrogen generation plants. The DOE hopes that development of a marketable vehicle model will drive the development of an infrastructure to support it.
Three hundred miles is a conventional driving range the distance you can drive in a car with a full tank of gas. In order to create a comparable result with a fuel cell vehicle, researchers must overcome hydrogen storage considerations, vehicle weight and volume, cost, and safety. While PEMFC systems have become lighter and smaller as improvements are made, they still are too large and heavy for use in standard vehicles. There are also safety concerns related to fuel cell use. Legislators will have to create new processes for first responders to follow when they must handle an incident involving a fuel cell vehicle or generator.
Engineers will have to design safe, reliable hydrogen delivery systems. Researchers face considerable challenges. In the next section, we will explore why the United States and other nations are investing in research to overcome these obstacles.
An alternative to current perfluorosulfonic acid membranes are aromatic-based membranes. Aromatic in this case does not refer to the pleasing scent of the membrane -- it actually refers to aromatic rings like benzene, pyridine or indole.
These membranes are more stable at higher temperatures, but still require hydration. Why is the U. More than a billion dollars has been spent on research and development on fuel cells.
A hydrogen infrastructure will cost considerably more to construct and maintain some estimates top billion dollars. Why does the president think fuel cells are worth the investment?
The main reasons have everything to do with oil. America must import 55 percent of its oil. By this is expected to grow to 68 percent. Two thirds of the oil Americans use every day is for transportation.
Even if every vehicle on the street were a hybrid car, by we would still need to use the same amount of oil then as we do right now [Source: Fuel Cells ]. In fact, America consumes one quarter of all the oil produced in the world, though only 4. Oil Dependency ]. Experts expect oil prices to continue to rise over the next few decades as more low-cost sources are depleted. Oil companies will have to look in increasingly challenging environments for oil deposits, which will drive oil prices higher.
Concerns extend far beyond economic security. Oil Dependency. Much of the report focused on the political relationships between nations that demand oil and the nations that supply it. Many of these oil rich nations are in areas filled with political instability or hostility.
Other nations violate human rights or even support policies like genocide. It is in the best interests of the United States and the world to look into alternatives to oil in order to avoid funding such policies.
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