As oil and gasoline prices rise, much hay is being made regarding the possibilities of fuel cells as a solution to our oil addictions. Here’s a basic primer on fuel cells.

Fuel Cells

Fuel cells have the potential to revolutionize the way we power our nation, offering cleaner, more-efficient alternatives to the combustion of gasoline and other fossil fuels. A fuel cell is a device that uses hydrogen (or a hydrogen-rich fuel) and oxygen to create an electric current.

The amount of power produced by a fuel cell depends on several factors, including fuel cell type, cell size, the temperature at which it operates, and the pressure at which the gases are supplied to the cell. A single fuel cell produces enough electricity for only the smallest applications. Therefore, to provide the power needed for most applications, individual fuel cells are combined in series into a fuel cell stack. A typical fuel cell stack may consist of hundreds of fuel cells.

Fuel cells have the potential to replace the internal combustion engine in vehicles and provide power for stationary and portable power applications. They can be used in transportation applications, such as powering automobiles, buses, cycles, and other vehicles. Many portable devices can be powered by fuel cells, such as laptop computers and cell phones. They can also be used for stationary applications, such as providing electricity to power homes and businesses.

Fuel cells are cleaner and more efficient than traditional combustion-based engines and power plants. When pure hydrogen is used to power a fuel cell, the only byproducts are water and heat - no pollutants or greenhouse gases are produced. That's good for our health and the environment. Since fuel cell technology is more efficient than combustion-based technologies, less energy is needed to provide the same amount of power. Finally, because hydrogen can be produced using a wide variety of resources found right here in the United States -including natural gas, biological material, and even water - using hydrogen fuel cells reduces our dependence on other countries for fuel.


You may be asking yourself, "With all of these benefits, why aren't hydrogen and fuel cells widely used today?" Although the potential benefits of fuel cells are significant, many challenges, technical and otherwise, must be overcome before fuel cells will be a successful, competitive alternative for consumers. These include cost, durability, fuel storage and delivery issues, and public acceptance. Still, scientists and industry are hard at work to overcome these challenges and bring hydrogen and fuel cells to the marketplace.

Fuel cells aren’t the current answer to our oil problem, but that may change in the relatively short future.