A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that converts the energy in chemicals into electricity. A battery is also an electrochemical device that converts chemical energy into electricity, but there is a limited supply of chemicals in a battery, so eventually the chemicals are all consumed and the battery no longer supplies electricity. In a fuel cell, however, the chemicals can be replenished, so the fuel cell can continue to produce electricity.
In a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) the fuel used is hydrogen and the byproduct of the PEMFC is clean water. A big advantage of fuel cells is that they do not create pollution. In addition, the fuel cell has no moving parts so it doesn't break down like an internal combustion engine can. This means that there could be fewer breakdowns for a car that uses a fuel cell, compared to a car with a standard internal combustion engine.
The fuel cell was first demonstrated by William Grove in 1839. The first thing that Grove did was to pass a current through water and separate water into its components: hydrogen and oxygen. This process is called electrolysis. He then wondered if electrolysis could be reversed. The answer was yes. When the hydrogen and oxygen recombined, an electric current was produced. While William Grove invented an interesting device, the fuel cell remained a lab curiosity for many years due to the expense of making one, as well as other complexities. Finally, in the 1930s, Francis Thomas Bacon developed an alkali electrolyte fuel cell, which was eventually used in NASA's Apollo missions.
The fuel cell is made up of five parts: the anode, a catalyst layer, an electrolyte layer, another catalyst layer, and finally, the cathode. Fuel, such as hydrogen gas in the case of a PEMFC, enters the system at the anode.
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Fuel cells offer a unique combination of benefits that make them a vital technology ideally suited for a number of applications.