Fuel cell is a device which converts chemical energy to electrical energy. generally used in automobiles and a future contender of power generation.

1. COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY AND
ENGINEERING
SUPERVISED BY:- PRESENTED BY:-
Dr. M.S. Khidiya Sir Piyush Gupta
Roll No.:- 30
Seminar Presentation On

2. Contents
• Introduction
• Principle of fuel cell
• Type of fuel Cell
• Working of fuel cell
• Efficiency
• Present use of fuel cell
• Advantages and disadvantages
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3. INTRODUCTION
• A fuel cell is a electrochemical cell which converts chemical energy into electrical
energy through an electrochemical reaction.
• The process of fuel cell is
Fuel Oxygen
Oxidation
Products Electricity
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4. Principle Of fuel Cells
• Fuel cells consist of electrodes, electrolyte and catalyst to facilitate
electrochemical reaction.
• The basic arrangement in fuel cell can be represented as
FUEL ELECTRODE ELECTROLYTE ELECTRODE OXIDANT
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5. WHY FUEL CELLS?
• Hydrogen is the most abundant material so it can be used as a fuel.
• No harmful effect to the environment such as produced in IC engines
and other conventional power plant.
• There are no moving parts in fuel cells making it more reliable than
other recourses.
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6. Types Of Fuel Cells
• Electrolyte: alkaline solution such as potassium
hydroxide in water
• Commonly use a nickel catalyst
• Generally fuelled with pure hydrogen and oxygen
as they are very sensitive to poisoning
• Typical operating temperatures are around 700C
• Used on NASA shuttles throughout the space programme
1.Alkali Fuel Cells
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7. 2. PAFC – Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cells
• Electrolyte: liquid phosphoric acid in a
bonded silicon carbide matrix
• Use a finely dispersed platinum catalyst
on carbon
• Quite resistant to poisoning by carbon
monoxide
• Operate at around 1800C
• Used in stationary power generators (100 kW to 400 kW)
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8. 3. SOFC – Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
• Electrolyte: solid ceramic, such as stabilised
zirconium oxide
• A precious metal catalyst is not necessary
• Can run on hydrocarbon fuels such as methane
• Operate at very high temperatures, around
800oC to 1,000oC
• Popular in stationary power generation
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9. 4. MCFC – Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells
• Electrolyte: a molten carbonate salt suspended
in a porous ceramic matrix
• A precious metal catalyst is not necessary
• Can run on hydrocarbon fuels such as methane
• Operate at around 650oC
• Most fuel cell power plants of megawatt capacity
use MCFCs, as do large combined heat and power
plants
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10. Working Of Fuel Cell
• A Fuel Cell consist of ANODE, CATHODE and
ELECTROLYTE.
• An electrochemical reaction takes place to produce
current in the circuit.
• Hydrogen atoms enter at the anode and undergoes
oxidation and produce free electrons.
• Oxygen enters at the cathode and by combining the
positive hydrogen atom and free electron it get reduced.
• The flow of electron from anode to cathode produces
electricity.
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11. The reaction that takes place in a fuel cell is
Because of these flow of electron , current is produced across the system.
2H2 4H+ + e-
Anode
O2 + 4H+ + 4e- 2H2OCathode
2H2 + O2 2H2OCell
Reaction
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12. Efficiency of a Fuel Cell
• The fuel cell thermodynamic efficiency is given by the ratio of the
Gibbs function change to the Enthalpy change in the overall cell
reaction.
• Efficiency (η): =
𝒅𝑮
𝒅𝑯
, where 𝒅𝑮 represent the useful work or measure of electric work
And 𝒅𝑯 represent the measure of heating value of the fuel.
• For hydrogen-oxygen reaction
dH = - 68,317 cal/g mole of H2,
dG = - 56,690 cal/g mole of H2
• η = 83%
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13. Present Use of fuel cells
• NASA is the primary user of hydrogen resources for its space program
and employs hydrogen batteries for electrical sources.
• Many buses have successfully demonstrated the use of fuel cell
because it can have large area for storage of hydrogen.
• Germany have been successfully using bicycles and scooters running
on hydrogen fuel cell.
• A number of automobile manufacturers are now launching fuel cell
vehicles. In 2014, Hyundai started an innovative worldwide leasing
program of their ix35 car. Toyota and Honda have launched FCEVs in
2015. they can run upto 650 Km when fully charged.
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14. Fig: FCEV vehicle Fig: Hydrogen fuel cell bus
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15. Advantages Of Fuel Cell
• High efficiency of energy conversion (approaching 70%) from
chemical energy to electrical energy.
• Low noise pollution and low thermal pollution.
• Fuel cell power can reduce expensive transmission.
• Fuel cells are less polluting. The chemical process involved in it is
clean. It does not produce polluting exhaust. Mostly the by-products
are water and waste heat, which are environmentally acceptable
when hydrogen and air are used.
• In case of fossil fuels used, undesirable NOx are not produced.
• Low maintenance cost.
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16. Disadvantages Of Fuel Cells
• High initial cost.
• Life of fuel cells are not known.
• Requires large weight and volume for storage of fuel.
• High cost of pure hydrogen
• Lack of infrastructure for distributing hydrogen
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17. References
• http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/basics.htm
• https://www.bluffton.edu/courses/TLC/MontelA/Montel/Alternative_
Energy_Website/Fuel_Cell.htm
• http://www.hydrogenics.com/technology-resources/hydrogen-
technology/fuel-cells/
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