The Fuel Cell and Alternative Fuel Tech

The urgency of replacing the combustion engine is more apparent now than it was. Those who do manage to create the right technology will stand to earn millions. Sometime ago, researchers made a break through in battery technology. The break through resulted in a fuel cell that converts oxygen and hydrogen into water. As the process goes on, electricity is produced. The Electrochemical Energy Conversion device, as this fuel cell is called, is one among many existing fuel cell technologies which inventors hope to incorporate into the automobile. Isn't the fuel cell the same thing as a battery? The answer is no. The battery contains all it needs to produce electricity. Since the containment does not allow for replenishing elements, the battery eventually runs out of materials with which to produce electricity. The fuel cell, on the other hand, works like a combustion engine. To put it simply, gas goes into the engine which is then burned to produce energy. Excess gas comes out of the exhasut as smoke or carbon. With the fuel cell, the elements are fed into the cell where the conversion process takes place. As long as you have those elements, you won't run out of gas, so to speak. Suffice it to say that after all those chemical interactions and energy conversions in the battery, water is produced as a waste product. Water is getting scarce. This is indeed a breakthrough. The difficulty right now is that storage of hydrogen for general use is considered unsafe. It's a sad state with hydrogen being the most abundant element in the universe. In terms of energy conversion efficiency ratios, it beats the combustion engine and batteries more than three times. The fuel cell can secure a bright future in automotive manufacturing if somebody can find a replacement element for hydrogen. Going in that direction, however, will force you to broaden your area of research which will require you to spend more time and money. Concentrating on hydrogen storage narrows the research field considerably. The time is fast approaching when the oil wells run dry. We cannot afford to lose any more time in finding the correct solution. Dozens of alternatives have already been put forward. At this point, we don't need anymore alternatives. We need technology to address those alternatives. Be it fuel cell, solar or nitrogen, we need the solution now.

 

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