There has been a great deal of talk and media coverage about fuel cells. While a fuel cell is certainly high tech, the science behind a fuel cell has been around for quite some time. This article provides a brief overview of fuel cell technology, some of the basic applications for fuel cells and where you can find small scale fuel cells for your own experiments.
A fuel cell is essentially a device that contains a small chemical reaction whose main purpose is to produce energy. In the case of the hydrogen fuel cell, the energy produced is electricity. The output of the fuel cell can then be used to power cars, homes, or even entire cities. The technology for really large scale fuel cells is not quite here, but research is progressing and we could have a working fuel cell power plant within the next decade.
The fuel cell works much like a car battery really. The car battery uses chemical energy to store and then discharge electricity. A battery is thought of as a ‘storage cell’ and not a ‘fuel cell’ because it will hold electricity, but it can not produce energy on its own. A fuel cell on the other hand actually creates electricity and water from the base elements hydrogen and oxygen. When these two elements are brought together using the right catalyst (most of the time, a metal like platinum is used) the two elements will start a chemical reaction that can be sustained as long as there is an adequate supply of hydrogen and oxygen to keep the reaction going.
The downside to fuel cell technology is obviously the requirement for hydrogen. While hydrogen is very abundant, it’s seldom found floating free in its isolated state. It also takes energy to remove it from the elements it tends to bind itself to. So the trick in fuel cell technology is to find a way to get hydrogen using less energy than is produced by the fuel cell. The upside for fuel cells is that they produce adequate power with very little environmental impact. Imagine a world where all cars are powered with fuel cells the size of a suitcase and they produce absolutely no emissions. That is the promise of the fuel cell.
If you are interested in checking out the technology, there are a number of small kits that can be purchased online and at local hobby shops. I saw recently a small model car that was run off a fuel cell that you could build in about a day. There are also small reactors that light bulbs and run motors. I’m looking for one that will run my laptop.
