HISTORY | Fuel Cells

Together with the electric motor, dynamo, gas turbine, internal combustion engine, and the fused salt electrolysis of aluminum, the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century brought about the fuel cell – the silent or cold combustion of fossil fuels by the electrochemical oxidation with atmospheric oxygen to water and carbon dioxide. Wilhelm Ostwald, in 1894, emphasized the high efficiency and the nonpolluting properties of the direct conversion of chemical energy into electricity – in contrast to the then combination of steam engine and dynamo, which reached only about 10% efficiency. Direct coal fuel cells designed for the propulsion of ships, however, have not become a reality so far. Instead of fuel cells and batteries, internal combustion engines determined the nineteenth- and twentieth- century technological landscape. Against the background of the oil crisis and the long-term scarcity of natural gas, crude oil, and coal, new hopes have focused on fuel cell technology, which saw first early splendid applications during the space programs of the 1960s, in submarines since the 1980s, and in experimental zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) since the 1990s. This article outlines (1) early insights about energy conversion: Grove's cell, direct conversion of coal and indirect fuel cells; (2) historical roots of alkaline fuel cells: the discovery of gas diffusion electrodes; low-pressure alkaline fuel cell conquer spacecrafts and submarines; (3) polymer electrolyte fuel cells: solid polymer technology, electric vehicles, direct methanol fuel-cell, stationary power systems and portable polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell systems; (4) phosphoric acid fuel cell (PAFC): acid fuel cells, PAFC plants in Japan, gasoline fuel cells; and (5) high-temperature fuel cells: molten carbonate fuel cell and solid oxide fuel cell.