Pem Fuel Cells
Proton Exchange Membranes
Recently, the renewable energy issue is becoming significant all over the world due to increasing power demand, instability of the rising oil prices and environmental problems caused by humans. Among the various renewable energy sources, fuel cell technology has received great attention as an alternative to the conventional way of getting energy due to its high efficiency, clean operation and cost efficient supply of power demanded by the consumers. Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells technology plays a leading role for many applications when comparing with other competitive types of fuel cells. The world is in high demand for clean alternative fuel source and PEM fuel cells could be that change with a little bit more research.
The very first known form of a fuel cell was made in 1839 but it was not a practical fuel cell, the first practical fuel cell was not made until one hundred and ten years later in the 1950’s. A fuel cell is an electrochemical converter that takes the chemical energy of a fuel and converts it directly into DC electricity. A fuel cell is similar to a battery in that it has electrodes and an electrolyte, but it needs a fuel and oxidant supply to run, and produces a waste of heat and water. PEM fuel cells use the air as their fuel. They take in the hydrogen and the oxygen to produce the energy. PEM fuel cells were invented in the early 1960’s and used in early Gemini space missions but were later replaced by alkaline batteries. They were also used in a few Apollo space missions as well but were not used in any general public opportunities due to cost until the early 1990’s but even then they were still very expensive. Today PEM fuel cells are still underdeveloped for the amount of time they have been around and still cost too much for the amount of weight to power.
The scalability of PEM fuel cells allows for a wide range of power outputs from a few milliwatts, up to millions of watts. The four main
Recently, the renewable energy issue is becoming significant all over the world due to increasing power demand, instability of the rising oil prices and environmental problems caused by humans. Among the various renewable energy sources, fuel cell technology has received great attention as an alternative to the conventional way of getting energy due to its high efficiency, clean operation and cost efficient supply of power demanded by the consumers. Proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells technology plays a leading role for many applications when comparing with other competitive types of fuel cells. The world is in high demand for clean alternative fuel source and PEM fuel cells could be that change with a little bit more research.
The very first known form of a fuel cell was made in 1839 but it was not a practical fuel cell, the first practical fuel cell was not made until one hundred and ten years later in the 1950’s. A fuel cell is an electrochemical converter that takes the chemical energy of a fuel and converts it directly into DC electricity. A fuel cell is similar to a battery in that it has electrodes and an electrolyte, but it needs a fuel and oxidant supply to run, and produces a waste of heat and water. PEM fuel cells use the air as their fuel. They take in the hydrogen and the oxygen to produce the energy. PEM fuel cells were invented in the early 1960’s and used in early Gemini space missions but were later replaced by alkaline batteries. They were also used in a few Apollo space missions as well but were not used in any general public opportunities due to cost until the early 1990’s but even then they were still very expensive. Today PEM fuel cells are still underdeveloped for the amount of time they have been around and still cost too much for the amount of weight to power.
The scalability of PEM fuel cells allows for a wide range of power outputs from a few milliwatts, up to millions of watts. The four main
Cited: Adams W. “Enhancement of the Performance and Reliability of CO poisoned PEM Fuel Cells.” Journal of Power Sources. Volume 145 Issue 1 (2005): Pages 55-61 Barbir, Frano. “PEM Fuel Cells: Theory and Practice”. Burlington, MA, USA. Academic Press. 06/2005.ebook Erdinc O., Uzunoglu M. “Recent trends in PEM fuel cell-powered hybrid systems: Investigation of application areas, design architectures and energy management approaches.” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. Volume14 Issue 9 (2010): Pages 2874-2884 Ersoz Atilla, Olgun Hayati, Ozdogan Sibel. “Reforming options for hydrogen production from fosil fuels for PEM fuel cells.” Journal of Power Sources. Volume154 Issue 1 (2006): Pages 67-73 Kim Taegyu.” Fully-integrated micro PEM fuel cell system with NaBH4 hydrogen generator.” Inertantional Journal of Hydrogen Energy. Volume 37 Issue 3 (2012): Pages2440-2446. Nazari Ali. “Predicting performance of PEM fuel cells by gene expression programming.” Internationa Journal of Hydrogen Energy. Volume 37 Issue 24 (2012): Pages 18972-18980 Siracusano S. Baglio V.” Electrochemical characterization of single cell and short stack PEM electrolyzers based on Nano sized IrO2 anode electrocatalyst.” International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. Volume 35 Issue 11 (2010): Pages 5558-55568 Yalcinoz T.” Improved dynamic performance of hybrid PEM fuel cells and ultracapacitors for portable applications.” International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. Volume 33 Issue 7 (2008): Pages 1932-1940 Yazici Suha M. “UNIDO-ICHET support to hydrogen and fuel cell technologies in Turkey.” International Journal of Hydrogen Energy. Volume 36 Issue 17 (2011): Pages 11239-11245