Fuel Cells

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Created by Jose Cortes

Fuel Cells
An alternative Source of Energy

 A Fuel Cell is an electrochemical cell that combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity. It converts chemical energy directly into electric energy.

What are fuel cells?

 A Fuel Cell has two electrodes coated with catalysts that surround an electrolyte One electrode is the anode and the other the cathode When Hydrogen enters the cell, the catalyst that coats the anode separate hydrogens negatively charged electrons from the positively charged protons. The electrolyte membrane allows protons to pass through to the cathode, but not the electrons The electrons are harnessed and directed to an external circuit. This is the electrical current. When the oxygen enters the cell, oxygen molecules pass through the cathode and the positively charged Hydrogen ions combine with the oxygen's electrons to create water and generate heat.

How do they work?

What are the different types of fuel cells?

 Although, they are technically a battery that will never die out, the machine has to carry enough fuel to power it, but it is inconvenient. The fuel cell in a car for example, is larger than the average engine that a car has.

Capacity

 The fuel performs its best with pure hydrogen and oxygen. Using condensed hydrogen or outside air will not allow the fuel cell to preform at its best.

Hydrogen

 Fuel Cells are very quiet. The use of hydrogen and oxygen as reactants does not create greenhouse gases that damage the environment. The only products are water, oxygen, and heat. Because they do not use the limited amount of fossil fuels we have on Earth, those resources can be used for better purposes. A fuel cell will never be run down or worn out, as long as it is provided the reactants it will work. Depending on the type, a fuel cell is 40-90% efficient as compared to a combustion engine which is only 25-30% efficient. Can be used to power virtually everything from cellphones to entire skyscrapers.

Why use fuel cells?

 In 2003 US President George Bush proposed the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative (HFI) The 2005 Energy Policy Act and the 2006 Advanced Energy Initiative focused on further developing hydrogen fuel cells and its infrastructure technologies with the purpose of producing commercial fuel cell vehicles by 2020. By 2008, the U.S. government had contributed 1 billion dollars to this project

Support

 http://chemelab.ucsd.edu/fuelcell/benefits.htm http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuelefficiency/alternative-fuels/fuel-cell.htm Google Images http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_cell

Bibliography