Early Work on Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cells

1 EARLY WORK ON PHOSPHORIC ACID FUEL CELLS 

A hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell with liquid acidic electrolyte was described in Section 1.4. For that discussion it was not necessary to specify a particular acid, since the acid anion does not take part in the electrode reactions. 

In electrochemical studies, solutions of snUhric acid are generally used in different concentrations as an acid electrolyte. Throughout the history of fuel cell development, however, very few attempts were made to build a hydrogen-oxygen fuel cell with sulfuric acid solution as an electrolyte. First models of operative fuel cells used alkaUne electrolytes. This development and its very successful practical demonstration in 1960 are associated with Francis Thomas Bacon. 

Developments after 1960 went in three different directions  

A number of variants of fuel cells with alkahne electrolyte having a simpler design and milder working conditions (temperature and pressure) than the Bacon ceU were built and used in different applications. This work culminated in a number of fuel battery versions used in NASA s Apollo spacecraft and space shuttles (details in Chapter 6). 

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Early Work on Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cells... 

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