Professional Documents
Culture Documents
BY
RAVI BHASKAR
MECH- B
ROLL NO.-80
CONTENTS
• INTRODUCTION
• PROTON EXCHANGE MEMBRANE
• CHEMISTRY OF FUEL CELLS
• PROBLEMS WITH FUEL CELLS
• EFFICIENCY OF FUEL CELLS
• TYPES OF FUEL CELLS
• APPLICATIONS
• CURRENT SCENARIOS
INTRODUCTION
A fuel cell is an electrochemical energy conversion device. This device
converts hydrogen and oxygen into water, producing electricity and heat
in the process. It is like a battery that can be recharged while you are
deriving power from it. In fuel cell hydrogen and oxygen are used for
recharging.
The fuel cell will compete with many other types of energy conversion
devices such as gas turbine, petrol or diesel engine etc. combustion
engines like the turbine and the gasoline engine burn fuels and use the
pressure created by the expansion of gases to do mechanical work.
Batteries store electrical energy by converting it to chemical energy,
which can be converted back into electrical energy when needed.
A fuel cell provides a DC( direct current) voltage that can be used to
power motors, lights or any number of electrical appliances. There are
several different types of fuel cells, each having a different chemistry.
PROTON EXCHANGE
MEMBRANE
The proton exchange membrane fuel cell( PEMFC) is
one of the most promising technologies. PEMFC uses
one of the simplest reactions of any fuel cell.
DIAGRAM: -
Proton exchange
membrane O
ANODE SIDE:
2H2 4H+ + 4e-
CATHODE SIDE:
O2 + 4H+ +4e- 2H2O
NET REACTION:
2H2 + O2 2H2O
PROBLEMS WITH FUEL CELL
A fuel cell uses oxygen and hydrogen to produce electricity. The oxygen
required for a fuel cell comes from the air. In fact, in the PEM fuel cell,
ordinary air is pumped into the cathode. Hydrogen has some limitations that
make it impractical for use in most applications. For instance, you don't have
a hydrogen pipeline coming to your house, and you can’t pull up to a
hydrogen pump at your local gas.
Hydrogen is difficult to store and distribute, so it would be much more
convenient if fuel cells could use fuel that are more readily available. A
device called REFORMER addresses this problem. A reformer turns
hydrocarbon or alcohol fuels into hydrogen which is then fed to the fuel cells.
Unfortunately, reformers are not perfect. They generate heat and produce
other gases besides hydrogen. They use various devices to try to clean up
the hydrogen, but even so, the hydrogen that comes out of them is not pure,
and this lowers the efficiency of the fuel cell.
Some of the more promising fuels are natural gas, propane and methanol.
These fuels are more likely to be used for home fuel cells. Methanol is a
liquid fuel that has similar properties to gasoline. It is easier to transport and
distribute, so methanol may be a likely candidate to power fuel cell cars.
EFFICIENCY OF FUEL CELLS
In this section, it will be seen how fuel cells might improve the efficiency of
cars today. It is important to remember that pollution reduction is one of the
primary goals of the fuel cell.
A fuel cell powered car is compared to a gasoline engine powered car and a
battery powered car. Since all the cars have many of the same components,
those parts of the car will be ignored and the efficiency compared up to the
point where mechanical power is generated.