Fuel Cells

What is a fuel cell?

A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity, with water and heat as its by-product.  As long as fuel is supplied, the fuel cell will continue to generate power.  Since the conversion of the fuel to energy takes place via an electrochemical process, not combustion, the process is clean, quiet and highly efficient – two to three times more efficient than fuel burning.

No other energy generation technology offers the combination of benefits that fuel cells do.  In addition to low or zero emissions, benefits include high efficiency and reliability, multi-fuel capability, siting flexibility, durability, sand ease of maintenance.  Fuel cells are also scalable and can be stacked until the desired power output is reached.  Since fuel cells operate silently, they reduce noise pollution as well as air pollution and the waste heat from a fuel cell can be used to provide hot water or space heating for a home or office. 

There are many uses for fuel cells — right now, all of the major automakers are working to commercialize a fuel cell car. Fuel cells are powering buses, boats, trains, planes, scooters, forklifts, even bicycles. There are fuel cell-powered vending machines, vacuum cleaners and highway road signs. Miniature fuel cells for cellular phones, laptop computers and portable electronics are on their way to market. Hospitals, credit card centers, police stations, and banks are all using fuel cells to provide power to their facilities. Wastewater treatment plants and landfills are using fuel cells to convert the methane gas they produce into electricity. Telecommunications companies are installing fuel cells at cell phone, radio and 911 towers. The possibilities are endless.

More than 2500 fuel cell systems have been installed all over the world — in hospitals, nursing homes, hotels, office buildings, schools, utility power plants - either connected to the electric grid to provide supplemental power and backup assurance for critical areas, or installed as a grid-independent generator for on-site service in areas that are inaccessible by power lines.

 

Landfills/Wastewater Treatment Plants/Breweries - Fuel cells currently operate at landfills and wastewater treatment plants across the country, proving themselves as a valid technology for reducing emissions and generating power from the methane gas they produce. They are also installed at several breweries - Sierra Nevada, Kirin, Asahi and Sapporo. Untreated brewery effluent can undergo anaerobic digestion, which breaks down organic compounds to generate methane, a hydrogen rich fuel. 

 

 

 

 

Transportation

Cars - All the major automotive manufacturers have a fuel cell vehicle either in development or in testing right now, and several have begun leasing and testing in larger quantities. Automakers and experts speculate that the fuel cell vehicle will not be commercialized until at least 2010.

 

Buses - Over the last four years, more than 50 fuel cell buses have been demonstrated in North and South America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Fuel cells are highly efficient, so even if the hydrogen is produced from fossil fuels, fuel cell buses can reduce transit agencies’ CO2 emissions. And emissions are truly zero if the hydrogen is produced from renewable electricity, which greatly improves local air quality. Because the fuel cell system is so much quieter than a diesel engine, fuel cell buses significantly reduce noise pollution as well.

 

 

 

Scooters - In spite of their small size, many scooters are pollution powerhouses.  Gas-powered scooters, especially those with two-stroke engines, produce tailpipe emissions at a rate disproportionate to their small size. These two-stroke scooters produce almost as much particulate matter and significantly more hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide as a heavy diesel truck.  Fuel cell scooters running on hydrogen will eliminate emissions - in India and Asia where many of the population use them - this is a great application for fuel cells.

 

 

Forklifts/Materials Handling - Besides reducing emissions, fuel cell forklifts have potential to effectively lower total logistics cost since they require minimal refilling and significantly less maintenance than electric forklifts, whose batteries must be periodically charged, refilled with water, and replaced. Due to the frequent starting and stopping during use, electric forklifts also experience numerous interruptions in current input and output - fuel cells ensure constant power delivery and performance, eliminating the reduction in voltage output that occurs as batteries discharge.

 

Trains - Fuel cells are being developed for mining locomotives since they produce no emissions. An international consortium is developing the world’s largest fuel cell vehicle, a 109 metric-ton, 1 MW locomotive for military and commercial railway applications.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Micro Power

Consumer Electronics- Fuel cells will change the telecommuting world, powering cellular phones, laptops and palm pilots hours longer than batteries. Companies have already demonstrated fuel cells that can power cell phones for 30 days with out recharging and laptops for 20 hours. Other applications for micro fuel cells include pagers, video recorders, portable power tools, and low power remote devices such as hearing aids, smoke detectors, burglar alarms, hotel locks and meter readers. These miniature fuel cells generally run on methanol, an inexpensive wood alcohol also used in windshield wiper fluid.

 

Source: Fuel Cells 2000