Fuel Cells - Green Power - Martin's Marine Engineering Page

Lamps, burning coaloil and coal gas, litthe living rooms ofmost homes of theearly 1900’s. Butwhen electric lightbulbs replaced thosesmoky, smellysources of illumination,homes becamebrighter, cleaner, andsafer. At first onlythe wealthy couldafford electric lights.But as the demandwent up and the costwent down, moreand more of thepopulation were ableto afford electriclighting even thoughthere was plentyof coal to continuelighting buildings inthe usual way. Thebetter technologywon.“I cannot but regard the experimentas an important one...”A Brief HistoryWilliam Grove writing to Michael Faraday,October 22, 1842Although fuel cells have been around since 1839, it took 120 yearsuntil NASA demonstrated some of their potential applications inproviding power during space flight. As a result of these successes, inthe 1960s, industry began to recognize the commercial potential offuel cells, but encountered technical barriers and high investment costs— fuel cells were not economically competitive with existing energytechnologies. Since 1984, the Office of Transportation Technologies atthe U.S. Department of Energy has been supporting research anddevelopment of fuel cell technology, and as a result, hundreds ofcompanies around the world are now working towards making fuelcell technology pay off. Just as in the commercialization of the electriclight bulb nearly one hundred years ago, today’s companies arebeing driven by technical, economic, and social forces such as highperformance characteristics, reliability, durability, low cost, andenvironmental benefits.D.S. Scott and W. Hafele.“The Coming HydrogenAge: Preventing WorldClimate Disruption.”International Journal ofHydrogen Energy. Vol.15, No. 10, 1990.In 1839, William Grove, a British jurist and amateur physicist, first discovered theprinciple of the fuel cell. Grove utilized four large cells, each containing hydrogenand oxygen, to produce electric power which was then used to split the water inthe smaller upper cell into hydrogen and oxygen.This document, and more, is available for download at Martin's Marine Engineering Page - www.dieselduck.net