Fuel Cell

| King Faisal University | |
| College of Engineering | |
| | |

Fuel Cell


Prepared by : Abdullah Salman Al-Bitar
Date: May 12,2012




Managing global energy supplies is increasingly becoming
Introduction ;

Managing global energy supplies is increasingly becoming a
key issue for the future of mankind. If present usage levels are
sustained, fossil energy resources created over several hundred
millions of years will be used up within just a few generations.
The future of energy supply lies in opening up renewable energy
sources and developing new technologies such as the fuel cell.

The fuel cell’s potential ;

For decades, the internal-combustion engine has been
a hallmark in the history of the automotive industry
and of stand-alone energy supply. To most users, it has
so far been the only appropriate solution to drive cars
or generate power at remote sites. Fuel cells offer, for the
first time, the chance to replace the combustion engine
in a number of applications and thereby avoid harmful
emissions.
For the energy industry, they open up the option of
sustainable, resource-saving supply, and – thanks to
their ecological soundness – many diverse applications.
This includes applications in the mobile sector and all
areas of the energy industry.
The fuel cell looks back on a long track record. As
early as 1839, an Englishman, Sir William Robert Grove
(1811   –   1896 ), constructed the first fuel cell. Its further
development proved such an arduous task that Grove’s
concept was only used in isolated applications for nearly
100 years. His fuel cells featured electrodes made of
platinum sitting in a glass tube with their lower end
immersed in dilute sulfuric acid as an electrolyte and
their upper part exposed to hydrogen and oxygen inside
the tube. This was sufficient to produce a voltage of
1 volt. To turn the fuel cell into a really efficient source
of power, substantial technical efforts had to be made....