A fuel cell is a cell that produces electricity from oxidation of a fuel contained within the cell. Both the fuel and the oxidise are contained within the cell and the oxidising reaction takes place between two electrodes in the cell producing electricity directly. Thus the fuel cell combine features of traditional power thermal power plants as well as cells.
In thermal power plants the electricity is generated by first burning the fuel to generate heat energy, which is then converted to electric energy. In the process of converting the available energy of fuel to electricity, considerable amount of heat energy is wasted. In comparison, energy cells can theoretically generate electricity with 100% efficiency, although in practice some heat energy is lost in fuel cells.
The difference between fuel cell and traditional cells is that in traditional cells the electrodes directly take part in the reaction to produce electricity, and in the process, whereas in fuel cells the the reaction takes place between the fuel and the oxidant. The electrodes of fuel cells do not get depleted during the process of generating electricity.
The main advantages of fuel cells over other means of generating power is:
- High efficiency.
- Light weight.
- Compact
- They have no major moving parts therefore these are more reliable.
Because of there reasons fuel cell are used for remote applications and applications requiring high reliability. Most popular applications of fuel cells are in space stations, remote weather stations and military applications.
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