Fuel cells Grove

A fuel cell is simply a device with two electrodes and an electrolyte for extracting power from the oxidation of a fuel without combustion, converting the power released directly into electricity. The fuel is usually hydrogen. The principle of a fuel cell was first demonstrated by Sir William Grove in London in 1839 with sulphuric acid and platinum gauze as an electrocatalyst, and thereafter there were very occasional attempts to develop the principle, not all of which were based on sound scientific principles , as one commentator put it. 

The concept of the fuel cell, that is, a cell in which inert electrodes immersed in an electrolyte could he intimately contacted with a reacting fuel (e.g., hydrogen) and oxidant (e.g., air) and so generate an electric current, was demonstrated in 1839 by Grove and intensively studied by him during the next decade. 

The problem was solved by Francis Bacon, a British scientist and engineer, who developed an idea proposed by Sir William Grove in 18.39. A fuel cell generates electricity directly from a chemical reaction, as in a battery, but uses reactants that are supplied continuously, as in an engine. A fuel cell that runs on hydrogen and oxygen is currently installed on the space shuttle (see Fig. L.l). An advantage of this fuel cell is that the only product of the cell reaction, water, can be used for life support. 

The principle of the fuel cell was first demonstrated by Grove in 1839 [W. R. Grove, Phil. Mag. 14 (1839) 137]. Today, different schemes exist for utilizing hydrogen in electrochemical cells. We explain the two most important, namely the Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) and the Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC). 

Nymoen, H., PAFC demonstration plants in Europe first results, Proceedings of the third Grove fuel cell symposium, London, 28.9. — 1.10. 1993, Journal of Power sources, Vol. 49, pp 63-77. 

R. A. Lemons, in Proceedings ofthe Grove Anniversary Fuel Cell Symposium, London, Sept. 18-21 (D. G. Lover, ed.), Elsevier Applied Science, London and New York (1989), pp. 251-264. 

Fuel Processing for High Efficiency Fuel Cell Systems," J.R. Rostrup-Nielsen, L.J. Christiansen, and K. Aasberg-Petersen, Haldor Topsoe A/S, Grove IH Fuel Cell Symposium, September 1993. 

Proceedings of the Grove Anniversary Fuel Cell Symposium, London, UK, September 1995, Journal of Power Sources, Elsevier Sequoia Science, The Netherlands, January 1995. 

Appleby, A. J. From Sir William Grove to today Fuel cells and the future. Journal of Power Sources 1990 29 3-11. 

Xie, T., Hayden, C., Olson, K. and Healy, J. 2005. Chemical degradation mechanism of perfluorinated sulfonic acid ionomer. In Advances in materials for proton exchange membrane fuel cell systems, Pacific Grove, CA, Feb. 20-23, abstract 24. 

Lamport, J. Eighth Grove Fuel Cell Symposium, London, England, 2003 p 02B.5. 

The basic principles were stated more than 100 years ago by Sir William Grove in 1839 ( 2) but the first real application was made in the American space flights of Gemini and the Apollo moon trips. After more than a decade of intense activity in fuel cell R and D, the commercial availability of these units is now in sight... 

Electrolysis of water, mentioned above, had been described by the British chemists WilUam Nicholson (1753-1815) and Sir Anthony Carlisle (1768-1842) in 1800. But Grove s experiment seemed to go in the opposite direction. This reverse eleoctrolysis is the basic operation of the fuel cell—the combination of hydrogen gas (H ) and oxygen gas (O ) to produce water and energy, as described in the following chemical equation ... 

Welsh lawyer Sir William Robert Grove (1811-96) invents a hydrogen fuel cell. 

One area of research that will advance in years to come is the study of fuel cells. The first fuel cell was actually produced in 1839 by Sir William Grove (1811-1896). A... 

Such cells are called fuel cells and were discovered as long ago as 1839 by Sir William Grove, who noticed that, when water had been electrolyzed and the hydrogen and oxygen products were left in contact with the electrodes, the cell could run backward, producing a current in an external circuit. Yet it is only relatively recently that fuel cells have attracted major industrial interest. For reasons that will emerge later, the reaction usually chosen is that discovered by Grove ... 

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