Electrical energy when formed by the conversion of energy from fuel is known as electrochemical cell or in other words, fuel cell. An oxidizing agent and fuel agent when combined together generates electricity with their reaction. The electrolyte remains present in the cell while the reactants and its products flow outwards. To make the operation of fuel cells continuous and smooth, the flow of oxidant and reactant should be maintained.
Electrical power is generated quietly, smooth and efficiently with fuel cells without any pollution. To make the facts more clear, an electrochemical energy conversion device is known better as a fuel cell. The device by which chemicals like hydrogen and oxygen in water generate electricity is known as fuel cell.
A battery bears a close familiarity to the fuel cells, however, the chemicals of the battery are inside it, converting them into electricity, which eventually dies and the battery needs to be thrown away or recharged. But the continuous flow of chemicals into the cell makes a fuel cell long lasting till the time the flow of chemicals are balanced.
There are different kinds of fuels and oxidants that are used in fuel cells. If its a hydrogen fuel cell, then hydrogen acts as the fuel and oxygen that is generally taken from air is used as the oxidant. Hydrocarbons and alcohol are other kinds of fuel that can be used with chlorine and chlorine dioxide.(2) as other oxidants. Some of the main fuel cells are the Polymer exchange membrane fuel cell(PEMFC), Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), Alkaline fuel cell(AFC), Molten-carbonate fuel cell(MCFC), Phosphoric-acid fuel cell (PAFC) and Direct-methanol fuel cell(DMFC).
Oil is rapidly becoming expensive and its process excretes a lot of pollution, so with fuel cell technology, oil dependency can be reduced to a great extent. They are pollution free with pure water as their byproduct. Global Warming along with oil dependency has been the area of concern for all the countries and measures to prevent them are being introduced increasingly. Different kinds of fuel cells are available each for different preposition and chemistry. They are classified by the kind of electrolyte that is used and the operating temperature.
