Fuel Cells
A fuel cell is equivalent to a generator: it converts a fuel's chemical energy directly into electricity. The main difference between these energy conversion devices is that the fuel cell acccomplishes this directly, without the two additional intermediate steps, heat release and mechanical motion.
A fuel cell has two basic elements: a fuel delivery system and an electro-chemical cell that converts the delivered fuel into useful electricity. It is this unique combination that enables fuel cells to potentially offer the best features of both heat engines and batteries. Like batteries, the cell generates a dc electric output and is quiet, clean, and shape-flexible, and may be manufactured using similar plate and film-rolling processes. By contrast, the fuel delivery system ensures that fuel cells, like heat engines, can bequickly refueled and operate for long periods between stoppages.
"Fuel cell" is an ambiguous term because, although the conversion occurs inside a fuel cell, these cells need to be stacked together, in a fuel cell stack, to produce useful output. In addition, various ancillary devices are required to operate the stack properly, and these components make up the rest of the fuel cell system. In this article, fuel cell will be taken to mean fuel cell system(i.e., a complete stand-alone device that generates net power).
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