Timeline-History of Fuel cells
In 1748, Benjamin Franklin coined the term battery to describe an array of charged glass
plates.
In the 1860s, Georges Leclanche of France developed a carbon-zinc wet cell;
nonrechargeable, it was rugged, manufactured easily, and had a reasonable shelf life.
Also in the 1860s, Raymond Gaston Plant invented the lead-acid battery.
1881 Émile Alphonse Faure developed batteries using a mixture of lead oxides for the
positive plate electrolyte with faster reactions and higher efficiency.
In 1900, Thomas Alva Edison Edison, developed the nickel storage battery, and in 1905
the nickel-iron battery.
The small alkaline battery was introduced in 1949. In the 1950s the improved alkalinemanganese battery was developed.
In 1954 the first solar battery or solar cell was introduced, and in 1956 the hydrogenoxygen fuel cell was introduced.
In 1800, British scientists William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle had described the
process of using electricity to decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen. But
combining the gases to produce electricity and water was, according to Grove
1839 Welsh lawyer Sir William Robert Grove demonstrates the first Fuel Cell.
Attempting to reverse the process of electrolysis by combining hydrogen and oxygen to
produce water, he immersed two platinum strips surrounded by closed tubes containing
hydrogen and oxygen in an acidic electrolyte. His original fuel cell used dilute sulfuric
acid because the reaction depends upon the pH when using an aqueous electrolyte. This
first fuel cell became the prototype for the Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell (PAFC) which has
had a longer development period than the other fuel cell technologies.
1889,Chemist Ludwig Mond and assistant Carl Langer described their experiments with a
fuel cell using coal-derived "Mond-gas." They attained 6 amps per square foot
(measuring the surface area of the electrode) at .73 volts. Mond and Langer's cell used
electrodes of thin, perforated platinum.
Mond and Langer's fuel cell design from 1889.
1893, Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald ,a founder of the field of physical chemistry, provided
much of the theoretical understanding of how fuel cells operate. In 1893, he
experimentally determined the interconnected roles of the various components of the fuel
cell: electrodes, electrolyte, oxidizing and reducing agents, anions, and cations.
June 1896, William W. Jacques , an electrical engineer and chemist, was undeterred by
such figures however. In 1896, he "startled the scientific world and general public,"
according to one scientist of the day, "by his broad assertion that he had invented a
process of making electricity directly from coal." Jacques constructed a "carbon battery"
in which air was injected into an alkali electrolyte to react with a carbon electrode
William Jacques' carbon cell, 1896 (digitally enhanced)
Images from The Electrical Review
38, no. 970, p.826, 26 June 1896
1921, Emil Baur of Switzerland (along with several students at Braunschweig and
Zurich) conducted wide-ranging research into different types of fuel cells during the first
half of the twentieth century. Baur's work included high temperature devices (using
molten silver as an electrolyte) and a unit that used a solid electrolyte of clay and metal
oxides.
In the 1940s**, O. K. Davtyan of the Soviet Union added monazite sand to a mix of
sodium carbonate, tungsten trioxide, and soda glass "in order to increase the conductivity
and mechanical strength" of his electrolyte. Many of the designs during this period
experienced unwanted chemical reactions, short life ratings, and disappointing power
output. However, the work of Baur, Davtyan and others on high-temperature devices
paved the way for both the molten carbonate and solid oxide fuel cell devices of today.
**(We couldn’t get the exact year)
1939, Francis Thomas Bacon began researching alkali electrolyte fuel cells in the late
1930s. In 1939, he built a cell that used nickel gauze electrodes and operated under
pressure as high as 3000 psi.
1958,In 1958 he demonstrated an alkali cell using a stack of 10-inch diameter electrodes
for Britain's National Research Development Corporation.
1962,Research into solid oxide technology begins to accelerate in the US and
Netherlands. Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Company demonstrates a 20-horsepower
fuel-cell-powered tractor.
1965, In the US Apollo space programme, fuel cells exhibited their first renaissance in
the 1960’s. On the 21st August 1965, the Gemini 5 was the first space shuttle using a
polymer membrane fuel cell to replace the battery. Due to better performance, alkaline
fuel cells were used in the Apollo missions and supplied the electric power when the
USA landed on the moon in 1969.
1989, A so-called water fuel cell (1989) is an unrelated claim of a perpetual motion
device, which in fact was not claimed to function the way a fuel cell does.
In April 2000, the U.S. Department of Energy announced that a SOFC-microturbine
cogeneration unit will be evaluated by the National Fuel Cell Research Center and
Southern California Edison. The fuel cell was built by Siemens Westinghouse and the
microturbine by Northern Research and Engineering Corporation. According to Siemens
Westinghouse, the 220 kw SOFC operated for nearly 3400 hours, and achieved an
electrical efficiency of about 53%.
Feb 2004, To address challenges of energy depletion, the President’s National Energy
Policy and the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Strategic Plan call for expanding
the development of diverse domestic energy supplies. The President has proposed $1.2
billion over the next five years to support a new Hydrogen Fuel Initiative. The Initiative
will accelerate the pace of research and development on the hydrogen production and
distribution infrastructure needed to support hydrogen-powered fuel cells for use in
transportation. It will also address the need for appropriate safety codes and equipment
standards and for improved public education on hydrogen as an energy carrier.
www.eere.energy.gov/hydrogenandfuelcells/pdfs/hydrogen_posture_plan.pdf
Nov 29th,2004- The New York Times reported that the Idaho National Engineering and
Environmental Laboratory and Ceramatec, Inc. plan to reveal a breakthrough in hydrogen
production research today.
According to sources in the article, the lab uses water heated to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit
and a ceramic sieve from Ceramatec along with electrical current, and yields the
"highest-known production rate of hydrogen by high-temperature electrolysis."
That means the method uses less energy to produce hydrogen The most common means
of producing hydrogen today is electrolysis, running electricity through water to split it
into its components: hydrogen and oxygen. Using coal, the most common source of
electricity in the US today, consumes around four times the more energy as the resulting
hydrogen can produce.
The new method would have "about half the energy value of the energy put into the
process," a vast improvement.
References:
1. http://freeenergynews.com/Directory/FuelCell/index.html
2. http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,1732961,00.asp
3. http://columbia.thefreedictionary.com/battery,+electric
4. http://www.cfcl.com.au/Assets/Files/5.%20History%20of%20fuel%20cells%20%20Rev.1%2005-06.pdf
5. http://americanhistory.si.edu/fuelcells/