Super Eco

Fuel cells are chemical energy conversion devices that change fuel—most commonly hydrogen found in methanol—into electricity. Unlike conventional batteries, fuel cells never need recharging or replacement and generate far fewer environmental pollutants, e.g. reduced nitrogen oxides, carbon dioxide emissions and zero particulates.

Rather than burning fossil fuels (like combustion engines do), fuel cells work using a chemical reaction that is the reverse of electrolysis. In short, hydrogen and oxygen are combined in the fuel cell to create electricity and water. Water is the only so called "waste byproduct" of hydrogen fuel cells. 

Depending on the application, fuel cells can be tailored to output as much energy as required. Fuel cell uses are practically limitless, and provide a range of applications in the industrial, commercial, residential, transportation and portable power sectors. They can power virtually any device that requires a continuous stream of energy, from vending machines to vacuum cleaners, cell phones to laptops, and eventually entire buildings off-the-grid. Laptops are expected to be the first mass market for fuel-cell technology, with matchstick-sized cell phone power packs expected to follow. 

Car manufacturers are vying to deliver fuel cells to the mainstream marketplace as cleaner, greener alternatives to the combustion engine. However, fuel cell development for alternative vehicles remains sluggish, hampered by a tangle of cost, infrastructure and regulatory issues.

The fuel cell was invented in 1839 by German-Swiss chemist Christian Friedrich Schonbein. The following year, energy conservation pioneer Sir William Robert Grove, often called "the father of the fuel cell," was the first to demonstrate the groundbreaking technology.

(Photo Credit: Envissue)