Going Green Monday: Fuel Cells
Is this the way of the future: A cell that is powered with hydrogen and oxygen that will produce electricity like a battery, but never die. I hope so. This technology is called a fuel cell and it runs clean and quiet.
These fuel cells can be used to power anything from your laptop to your mp3 player. You probably have heard about them being used in cars to replace our engines. There are a few cars that already run on fuel cells, Honda has one, and so does Chevrolet. Fuel cells can also be used to help provide power in remote places, since they can be left alone without worry.
The following is taken from the website Fuel Cells 2000, You can get more information about fuel cells there.
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.
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You have to look at the big picture. What kind of processes are used to create and load the fuel cells? How much energy do they use and are there environmental consequences. If fuel cell really are a good answer, great, but after reading about the inefficiencies and the economic consequences of biofuels, I am more skeptical than ever about ‘green’ strategies.
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One of the biggest problems with fuel cells is, while the end result is a clean source of electricity, the process through which to obtain this fuel isn’t. In order to use a hydrogen fuel cell, you must have hydrogen and, at the moment, the easiest and safest way to obtain this extremely volatile gas is to harvest it from the electrolysis of water. This process takes enormous amounts of energy and because of this, hydrogen fuel cells then become just a [dangerous] battery — not a source of energy in themselves — not to mention the amount of net energy loss through variations of efficiencies.
I’m all for using clean[er] fuels, getting rid of our dependence on fossil fuels, and other “green” technologies, but hydrogen is simply not the answer [unless, as in Iceland, you have abundant, easily harnessed natural energies, short distances over which to transport the fuel, and a small population with a relatively small amount of vehicles to power].
I should have included that and I did not. That is my fault. I do still think it’s a great resource if we can find a way to produce it in a way that will not harm the environment.
You are correct. The National Hydrogen Association has witnessed great progress with the use of fuel cell technologies. Auto manufacturers, such as General Motors, Honda, and Daimler, are working with fuel cells to develop hydrogen powered cars. But, did you know BMW developed a hydrogen-powered internal combustion engine, similar to the technology we use today? The great aspect of about hydrogen is its versatility as an energy carrier, and fuel cells is a leading technology used to harness its “electrical” nature.
To clear up something James mentioned –currently the easiest and most common way to produce hydrogen is stream methane reformation with natural gas, rather than electrolysis. However, electrolysis is the ideal method for production, and can be done so through any renewable energy source or nuclear power, producing hydrogen in a completely emissions-free process. Hydrogen also is not any more dangerous than gasoline, and is actually considered to be safer due to its properties: http://www.hydrogenassociation.org/general/faqs.asp#safe
Fuel cells are used in other applications such as in specialty transportation to power forklifts and as emergency power stations for cell phone towers. Millennium Cell, a fuel cell manufacturer, is preparing to an emergency power for commercial use: http://gadgetgreeninspector.blogspot.com/2008/01/hydropak.html. Furthermore, two other leading fuel cell manufacturing companies, Ballard Power Systems and Plug Power, released a joint report that confirms fuel cells can improve the environment by reducing greenhouse gases. The report is readily available at Plug Power’s website at http://www.plugpower.com/news/documents/GHG%20FINAL.pdf.
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