A Comprehensive Review of the Fuel Cells Technology and Hydrogen Economy

Abstract

The degrading of the air quality resulting from the emissions of the existing energy conversion devices, in addition to the recent instability of the oil prices forced the need to a more stable zero-emission distribution generation technology or combination of technologies which allows a clean, cost effective supply of energy, on demand on a large scale and in any location. Thus, renewable energy generation or the decentralized power systems like wind, photovoltaic, as well as new hydrogen and fuel cells technologies are developing nowadays to take over from fossil hydrocarbons combustion. Fuel cell is an emerging technology which could allow a clean, cost effective supply of energy on demand on a large scale and in any location. This paper will act as a literature survey to the fuel cell technology. It will introduce the different fuel cell types with their advantages and disadvantages, and their suitability for different applications. It will also discuss the technical and economic issues facing the spread of this technology, and how to move to a worldwide hydrogen technology. It will also brief the current state of fuel cells with both drivers and barriers to its market growth. Further recommended work for the advance and spread of use of the fuel cells will be also highlighted.

Technical and Commercial Challenges of Proton-Exchange Membrane (PEM) Fuel Cells

“…Due to the fact that fuel cells' performance is directly proportional to their cell operational temperature, the cell performance is likely to decrease significantly if the cell is operated below or above its required range of operating temperatures. This can sometimes be very challenging as maintaining a constant cell operating temperature often becomes very tedious in the management of the cell [43,49,50]. Mitigation strategies like increasing the relative humidity of the reactants in cell have been proposed in some references, but this equally comes with a cost that often increases the overall cost of the system.…”

“…Therefore, low-temperature PEMFCs need careful management of heat and water as well as suffering from CO catalyst poisoning and fuel dispersion in the membrane. Membranes that do not need hydration are under development and, operating at high temperatures, they improve catalyst efficiency, accelerate the catalytic activity, decrease the susceptibility to impurities to the anodic catalyst and simplify thermal regulation [43]. Furthermore, a cost reduction is expected because, thanks to the higher catalytic action at high temperatures, the platinum load is reduced [41,43].…”

Studies and performance investigations on fuel cells

“…On the basis of operating temperature, electrolyte, and features, following are the main fuel cells [2,[6][7][8] …”

A review on energy management system for fuel cell hybrid electric vehicle: Issues and challenges

“…This gas can also be drawn from the electrolysis process by using an electrolyzer, which breaks the chemical bond in water into hydrogen and oxygen and then collects hydrogen in a gas tank [8]. Implementing renewable energy resources, such as fuel cells, can give rise to such concerns as efficiency, cost, and limitations.…”