Fuel cells Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Fuel cells - set about ExampleThis is then used to run a turbine to produce electricity. and then there are some(prenominal) intermediate steps each with certain capability (always less than 100%) associated with each of them. This is because thermic dynamism is the worst form of energy with maximum entropy and therefore can never be reborn fully into useful work. Now the overall efficiency of chemic potential energy to electricity revolution is a product of efficiency of each of the intermediate steps and therefore is much smaller. The best thermal power plants operate at maximum conversion efficiency of about 40%. Also, the combustion products are super polluting adding to carbon emission and global warming. Fuel cells on the other hand convert the chemical potential energy at a time into electricity and thus have very high conversion efficiency which is typically 70%. Besides, the reaction products are relatively harmless and in many cases completely harmless. Thus fuel cells are being seen as power plants of future and a tangible potential tooth root for containing the menace of carbon emission and therefore, global warming. These are already into many specialized and high termination applications. In this report the basic principle, related developments and current and potential applications of fuel cells are briefly discussed.A fuel cell is like a galvanic cell. It directly converts chemical energy into electricity and is highly efficient. It is now possible to make such cells in which reactants are fed continuously to the electrodes and products are outback(a) continuously from the electrolyte compartment. Galvanic cells that are designed to convert the energy of combustion of fuels like hydrogen, methane, methanol, etc. directly into electric energy are called fuel cells.Such a fuel cell was used for providing electrical power in the Apollo space program. The water vapors produced during the reaction were