How Fuel Cells Work
Technology for alternative power for cars is rapidly increasing as we look for alternative ways by which to use as a source of fuel for our cars.Fuel cells are another of one of today's technological marvels by how it coverts hydrogen and oxygen into water, and in the process, the byproduct is electricity.
Unlike a battery that eventually loses its charge, the chemicals are constantly flowing into the cell so it never goes dead. Hydrogen and oxygen are used in most of today's fuel cells, and will be competitive with many types of energy conversion devices such as a gas turbine, a regular conventional gas engine and the good old battery.
The DC current is used to power lights, motors and other electrical devices that run on DC voltage.Although there are several types of fuel cells as they each use different chemistry, they can be classified by the type of electrolyte they use which includes power for generation plants that are stationary, or can be used for portable applications as well as for cars.
The type that will be powering cars is the "proton exchange membrane fuel cell" which uses the simplest reactions of any fuel cell.There are some problems with fuel cells however in that the oxygen required comes from air which is readily available, but the hydrogen is not, so there are limitations which means that you can't just pull up to a hydrogen pump at a gas station or have a pipeline coming into the house.
It's very difficult to store and distribute, but it's been found that a device called a "reformer" which turns hydrocarbon or alcohol fuels into hydrogen which can then be fed to the fuel cell. However they generate a lot of heat and other gases, but not as bad for the environment as regular fuels used today.
There are also natural gases that are considered such as propane and methanol for use that are readily available.A cell that is powered by pure hydrogen as up to 80-percent efficiency, but if a reformer is added as explained earlier, the efficiency drops to about 30 to 40 percent. As always there is a trade off as with everything that can benefit any given need.
Although the fuel cell seems very promising, there are some drawbacks, and until these problems are worked out, we will still be mainly dependent on conventional battery systems and gas engines to move about via of the automobile and other transportation.
