Fuel Cells as Clean Energy Converters

A fuel cell is a device in which the energy of a fuel is converted directly into electricity direct current by an electrochemical reaction without resorting to a burning process, rather than to heat by a combustion reaction. The chemical energy of the fuel is released in the form of an electrical energy instead of heat when the fuel is oxidized in an ideal electrochemical cell. Energy conversion by a fuel cell depends largely upon catalytic electrodes, which accomplishes the electrochemical reaction to convert fuel into electric energy without involving the burning process. Efficiencies of fuel cells (40–85%) are considerable high compared to heat engines. Catalysts are so expensive that electricity from most fuel cells costs about a thousand times more than the same amount derived from conventional sources. The need is to develop the catalysts from the different precursors to succeed in the necessary chemical reactions in an effective way.