Fuel cells and hydrogen technology

Abstract

The energy technology of the future will have to meet a dual challenge: to deliver a secure and sufficient supply of energy to a growing world population, despite limited energy resources, and to curtail emissions that have a negative impact on the environment. Electricity and hydrogen are clearly evolving into the most important energy vectors of the future. Fuel cells fit in with this trend, as they are able to convert hydrogen efficiently into electricity and heat in an electrochemical reaction, their only by-product being water. Fuel cells can continue to operate as long as fuels are available. These systems achieve a high electrical efficiency of about 60%, even in the low power range of several hundred watts, in contrast to conventional power plants, which need to be dimensioned in the MW range to achieve high electrical efficiency values. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.