BurkeandBiocchi.wiki.spring.2011

__Fuel Cells __ By Peter Biocchi and Raymond Burke

The problem with the world we live in today is that our natural resources such as oil and fresh water are beginning to run low. To add to the natural resources problem, the worlds population is increasing at an alarming rate which will lead to further use of these resources and before we know it all the worlds resources will be used up. Another problem is the fact that the fossil fuels such as oil, gasoline, and coal release chemicals into the atmosphere which are depleting the ozone layer. The depletion of the ozone layer allows more of the suns most harmful rays to enter Earth and this can cause skin cancer. The gases such as CO2 in the air trap heat from the sun and cause average temperatures to rise all over the world. The driving force of this problem is the continuous burning of fossil fuels such as oil, gasoline, coal etc. in industry, power plants, and vehicles. []

Efforts have been made to combat this problem. A few attempts made have been the introduction of electric cars, hybrid cars, nuclear power plants, and river dams. Automobiles, power plants, aircraft, and the maritime industry, to name a few, still rely heavily on the use of fossil fuels. These industries make up a large percentage of the fossil fuel consumption so there must be a change, some sort of revolution, if you will, in the way that the world harnesses its power.

One major source of power that could be considered revolutionary if implemented into the mainstream economy is the fuel cell. "Fuel cells, with their roots in the space program, have the potential to truly revolutionize power generation," as Dr. Mark C. Williams of U.S. DOE NETL and Dan Rastler EPRI said. The fuel cell has four main components: the anode catalyst, the cathode catalyst, the polymer electrolyte membrane, and the electric circuit. The Hydrogen fuel enters the anode catalyst and loses an electron. The resulting ion is an H+ ion. The Hydrogen ion passes over the polymer electrolyte membrane. The lost electrons pass through the electric circuit, in the model this makes the light bulb illuminate. The electrons, the H+, and Oxygen molecules from the outside world combine to form water and this completes the fuel cell reaction.

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**__Anode Reaction__: 2H 2 => 4H + + 4e - **

**__Cathode Reaction__: O 2 + 4H + + 4e - => 2H 2 O** **__Fuel Cell Ne__**﻿**__t Reaction__:** **2H 2 ****+****O 2 ** **=>** **2H 2 O**

The benefits of fuel cells are numerous. The only chemical released by the fuel cell is water. Therefore there is no pollution left in the environment because you can literally drink the byproduct. This piece of technology could reduce CO2 emissions in the world by more than half. Fuel cells will also save huge quantities of oil if they are implemented in things such as heating, automobiles, planes and ships. As GM President and CEO Rick Wagoner said, "If this works this is the holy grail, this is the breakthrough. We've done enough work, we think there are risks, and the payoff is not just for the automotive OEM's (original equipment manufacturers), it's the whole economy.' ' One major step back to these appliances are the fact that they are extremely expensive. A 3kw fuel cell can go for as much as $20,000. It doesn't make a large portion of the world's energy sources. This is because it requires hydrogen as fuel. Hydrogen is not an easy chemical to obtain as a pure element because there are no "hydrogen deposits" as well as being a highly explosive material. Honda FCX Clarity fuel cell car []

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Fuel cells will decrease the demand for fossil fuels by a lot. There is also no harmful emissions as a result of the fuel cell reaction. This means that it will greatly help by addressing two of the major problems in the world today: pollution and oil dependence. Another way it can help is by helping businesses by saving energy and dollars by providing reliable power since companies on average lose $29bil/yr from computer failures due to power outages. Fuel cells can provide a 99.9999% reliability rate with less than a minute of down time in a six year period. To use this technology on a larger scale would require a few things. One of these things is the economization of hydrogen gas. For a fuel cell economy hydrogen gas will have to be easily accessed and this will require some newer technology and some money. There is room for a lot of improvement in fuel cells. They are still in their first stages of development and they can be made more compact as well as more powerful.

This technology can be used everywhere. It can be used in places such as boats, automobiles, and residential use. They can be used to power entire stores. The fact is that they can be used by everyone in many aspects of the economy. They are also used by the military to power things such as UAVs. UAVs are a critical part to save the lives of countless men and women. Boeing is also performing research on fuel cells to discover their potential and try to implement them into their future aircraft. media type="youtube" key="XzeCQblYHic" height="349" width="425" align="center"

[] Fuel cells are the obvious future of the worlds economy. The only fuel they require is Hydrogen and Hydrogen, in case you didn't know, is the most abundant element in the universe. Therefore "Hydrogen prices" are less likely to be as fickle as gasoline prices are today. Fuel cell vehicles have basically no carbon dioxide emissions, the only product is pure water which is not harmful to the environment at all. Along with having the environmentally friendly emissions that the fuel cells have, they also have a better fuel economy than a conventional fossil fueled car. The average fossil fueled car gets about 30mpg while a fuel cell car gets about 60mpg of hydrogen. This means that you would also spend less time at the pump for hydrogen which would definitely cost less than fossil fuels. The world should put its focus on fuel cells and in their development because they are environmentally friendly, they have no carbon emissions, and if researched upon they can be made faster and more efficient. The world is not going to live forever with the dependence it currently has on fossil fuels. If fuel cells are implemented into electrical systems and transportation cities will be much cleaner. There will be little to no smog because of the lack of carbon emissions and it will be a lot less noisy than current cities with their fossil fuel-based transportation systems.