Fuel Cell - Future Technology

for Cars
What is fuel cell?
A Fuel cell is an electrochemical device that
converts chemical energy into electrical
energy

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  Fuel cells for cars, buildings, central power stations, and
spacecraft were the subject of intense development efforts in the
last part of the twentieth century.
 Companies with major efforts in these applications include:
 Ballard Power Systems,
 General Electric Company,
 General Motors,
 Siemens,
4 Fuel Cell  Toyota,
 Mazda,
 Honda,
 Toshiba,
 Hitachi Ltd.,
 Fuji Electric,
 Mitsubishi Electric Corp. (MELCO),
 Ford,
 Nikola
 2. A fuel cell configuration

(+) (-)
A fuel cell consists of two
electrodes namely an anode
and a cathode and sandwiched
around an electrolyte.
An electrolyte is a substance,
solid or liquid, capable of
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conducting owing ions from one
Anode Cathode
electrode to other. Electrolyte
 • Every fuel cell also has an electrolyte, which carries
electrically charged particles from one electrode to
the other, and a catalyst, which speeds the reactions
at the electrodes.
• A single fuel cell generates a tiny amount of direct
current (DC) electricity.
• A converter is used to produce AC current
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• In practice, many fuel cells are usually assembled
into a stack. Cell or stack, the principles are the
same.
 3. Principle, construction and working of H2-O2 fuel cell
Principle: Electrons
The fuel is oxidized on the (e-)
anode and oxidant reduced on
the cathode. One species of
ions are transported from one
Cations
electrode to the other through (+ve)
the electrolyte to combine
there with their counterparts, Anions (-ve)
Fuel Oxidant
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while electrons travel through
the external circuit producing Electrolyte
the electrical current. Fuel Oxidant
Permeable Permeable
Anode Cathode
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 Working
The Fuel gas (hydrogen rich) is passed towards the anode where the
following oxidation reaction occurs:

H2 (g) = 2H+ + 2e-

The liberated electrons from hydrogen in anode side do not migrate
through electrolyte.

Therefore, they passes through the external circuit where work is

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performed, then finally goes into the cathode.

On the other hand, the positive hydrogen ions (H+) migrate across
the electrolyte towards the cathode.
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At the cathode side the hydrogen atom reacts with oxygen gas
(from air) and electrons to form water as byproduct according to:

The overall cell reaction is

fuel + oxidant product + Heat

H2 + 1/2 O2 +2e - H2O + Heat

 Hydrogen
Oxygen

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 3. Types of fuel cells

There are diffrent types of fuel cells, differentiated by the

type of electrolyte separating the hydrogen from the
oxygen.The types of fuel cells are:

• Alkaline fuel cells (AFC)

• Direct methanol fuel cells (DMFC)
• Molten carbonate fuel cell (MFFC)
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• Phosphoric acid fuel cells (PAFC)
• Polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFC)
• Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC)
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Alkaline fuel cells (AFC)

 They operate on compressed hydrogen and oxygen. They

generally use a solution of potassium hydroxide in water as their
electrolyte.
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Molten carbonate fuel cell
 Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell (MCFC), presented in Figure, requires a high
temperature compound of salt like sodium or magnesium carbonates as the
electrolyte.
 Its efficiency ranges from 60 to 80 percent, and the operating temperature is
about 650oC
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Phosphoric acid fuel cell

 The energy crises of the 1970s inspired researchers at Los Alamos National
Laboratory to begin studying fuel cells.
 Their objective being to develop electric vehicles, they were able to design a
golf cart powered by a phosphoric acid fuel cell.
 Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cells (PAFCs) currently available require a warm-up
period, a fact that has limited their use in private cars.
 The efficiency rate of Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cells (PAFCs) averages between
40 to 50 percent, but if the waste heat is reused in a cogeneration system its
efficiency can rise to 80 percent.
 Phosphoric acid fuel cell
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Solid oxide fuel cell

 SOFCs shown in Figure use a hard ceramic compound of

metal such as calcium oxide or zirconium oxide as the
electrolyte.
 The solid electrolyte is coated on both sides with
specialized porous electrode materials.
 The cell efficiency is about 60 %, and operating
temperatures are about 1000oC.
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Proton exchange membrane fuel cell
 Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cells’ (PEMFCs) development
has included stationary power applications.
 PEMFCs are one of the most promising fuel cell types for
widespread use. They are exceptionally responsive to varying
loads and increasingly cheap to manufacture.
 The PEM fuel cell uses an advanced plastic electrolyte in the
form of thin permeable sheet to exchange protons from the anode to
the cathode.
 There are two types of proton exchange membrane fuel cells, i.e.,
Hydrogen Fuel Cells and Direct Methanol Fuel Cells (DMFC),
both of which utilize Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) to
transfers protons
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 4. Advantage, disadvantage and applications

Advantages
• Zero Emissions: a fuel cell vehicle only emits water
vapour. Therefore, no air pollution occurs.

• High efficiency: Fuel cells convert chemical energy

directly into electricity without the combustion process. As a
result, Fuel cells can achieve high efficiencies in energy
conversion.
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• High power density: A high power density allows fuel cells

to be relatively compact source of electric power, beneficial in
application with space constraints.
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• Quiet operation: Fuel cells can be used in residential or

built-up areas where the noise pollution can be avoided.

• No recharge: Fuel cell systems do not require recharging.

Disadvantages

• It is difficult to manufacture and stores a high pure hydrogen

• It is very expense as compared to battery

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28 Fuel Cell Thermodynamics
 Thermodynamics of FC provides information on the
amount of energy produced by fuel cell.
 The reaction is exothermic.
 Since is exothermic, it will occur spontaneously—the
hydrogen and oxygen want to combine to form water.
 Their eagerness to do so provides the energy that the
fuel cell uses to deliver electrical energy to its load.
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Fuel Cell Thermodynamics
 Fuel Cell Thermodynamics
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 The questions, of course, are how much energy

is liberated in reaction (4.20) and how much of
that can be converted to electrical energy.
 To answer those questions, we need to describe
three quantities from thermodynamics: enthalpy,
free energy, and entropy.
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