Advantages And Disadvantages Of Fuel Cell

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Introduction No more than a hundred years ago, the number of cars on Earth were in the vicinity of a couple of thousands. Today, there are billions of automobiles worldwide; so many that there are roughly one for every seven people on the planet. Much like many other resources that are high in demand on earth because of the vast increase in population and technological advancements, there is a limited supply of fuel that is available to feed the large demand and in the long run, that is a problem. Many geologists think in the next few decades supplies of gasoline as well as everything else made from petroleum will start to dwindle because of the rate at which the resource is being used. If that happens, our cars will be immobile forever. A…show more content…
Fuel cells have a higher efficiency than diesel, petrol or gas engines. This is because electric fuel cells are like batteries powered by hydrogen gas that never run flat as long as the gases that are involved in the reaction are available. Since hydrogen can be produced anywhere where there is water and a source of power, generation of fuel can be distributed and does not have to be grid-dependent. These cells require resources that are in abundance and are naturally available at all times, unlike the petrol engine which requires a limited resource in order to function and as soon as it runs out, the petrol engine will be useless (2000, 2000). 2. Fuel cells can eliminate pollution caused by burning fossil fuels because for hydrogen fuelled fuel cells, the only by-product at point of use is water. (FuelCellToday, 2015). This is because the reaction that occurs in the hydrogen cell is mainly between oxygen and hydrogen, therefore it results in water and heat. A petrol engine on the other hand will release carbon dioxide which results in…show more content…
They are expensive. This is because Hydrogen gas requires a lot of work to free if from other elements. It’s already being used to power some hybrid cars, but at the moment it is not a viable source of fuel for everyone because of the cost because of the difficulty of separation of hydrogen from other substances. It is also time-consuming to produce. Until technology advances enough to simplify and ease the process; hydrogen energy will continue to be too expensive for most people. 2. Storage and movement is difficult. Hydrogen is hard to move around and transport as it is gas that must be stored without being contaminated (react with other elements) as it will cost even more to separate the compound or molecules again. Oil on the other hand can be transported through pipelines and coal can be carried in dump trucks and other heavy vehicles (Future, 2009). 3. Another disadvantage would be the hydrogen fuel cell’s dependency on fossil fuels. Although hydrogen energy is renewable and its environmental impacts are minimal, other non-renewable sources like coal, oil and natural gas are needed to separate hydrogen from oxygen. Dependency on fossil fuels may be reduced, however, by using hydrogen, we are actually using them to produce hydrogen fuel (Future,

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