Fuel Cell Research

Research of fuel cells are revealing new technologies that have real promise for the “green” movement that is taking place when it come to fueling our cars with alternative fuels.  Fuel cells are mechanical devices that use hydrogen or hydrogen-containing fuel such as methane to produce an electric current. Fuel cells are clean, quiet, and highly efficient sources of electricity.  Scientists are doing extensive research on how new, smaller fuel cells can benefit the alternative fuel industry, and their research is very promising.

In 2003, President Bush announced a program called the Hydrogen Fuel Initiative (HFI) during his State of the Union Address. This initiative, supported by legislation in the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPACT 2005) and the Advanced Energy Initiative of 2006, aims to develop hydrogen, fuel cell and infrastructure technologies to make fuel-cell vehicles practical and cost-effective by 2020. The United States has dedicated more than one billion dollars to fuel cell research and development so far.

A battery has all of its chemicals stored inside, and it converts those chemicals into electricity too. This means that a battery eventually "goes dead" and you either throw it away or recharge it.  With a fuel cell, chemicals constantly flow into the cell so it never goes dead -- as long as there is a flow of chemicals into the cell, the electricity flows out of the cell. Most fuel cells in use today use hydrogen and oxygen as the chemicals.

The fuel cell research that is being done today focuses on making the fuel cells smaller and more efficient.  As more and more alternative fuel vehicles are being planned and produced, making the energy source that powers them the best that they can be.  Early fuel cells were large and cumbersome, but research technology has made them smaller and easily adaptable into an alternative fuel vehicle.

Pollution reduction is one of the primary goals of the fuel cell. By comparing a fuel-cell-powered car to a gasoline-engine-powered car and a battery-powered car, you can see how fuel cells might improve the efficiency of cars today.  That’s why scientists have devoted much of their research time towards making these tiny engines smaller and cleaner burning.

The trend these days is toward reducing pollution and the release of harmful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.  With extensive fuel cell research, we are well on the way toward converting our gasoline powered engines (gas guzzlers, if you will) into clean burning vehicles that will run just like the traditional car.  But researching fuel cells needs funding.  It’s a good thing the government has agreed!

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