Fuel Cell: The Advantages And Disadvantages Of Fuel Cells

INTRODUCTION
OVERVIEW OF FUEL CELLS
“A fuel cell is an energy conversion device that converts the chemical energy of a fuel gas directly to electrical energy and heat”. It ensures higher conversion rates and better efficiencies than thermal and mechanical processes. That is because there is no intermediate step of direct combustion. Fuel cells have the same operating principle as batteries in which there is electrochemical combination of a fuel gas(hydrogen) and an oxidant gas(oxygen from air) for the generation of electricity. This combination occurs between two electrodes via an electrolyte. But the advantage of fuel cell is that unlike batteries, it doesn’t run out or need recharging. A fuel cell is able to run as long as the electrolyte is present and the oxidant is provided to the electrode. [1]

ADVANTAGES OF FUEL CELLS

This conversion takes place by the process of electrochemical combination of hydrogen with the oxygen from air. There are numerous advantages of fuel cells. One primary advantage is that it is a clean process unlike most of the combustion process as there is low emission of gases like NOx and CO2 and this attributed to not being an electrochemical process and not being limited by Carnot Cycle. Fuel Cells also offer higher efficiencies of electricity production. Other merits of this technology include flexibility and modularity, as it is not trouble significantly by issues of lubrication, wear, leakage and loss of heat that influence the working of conventional heat