Environmental Concerns and Remediation

Abstract

Fuel cells are one of the most promising, clean and highly efficient sources for energy production. They have tremendous potential to deliver sustainable energy to satisfy human energy needs for a longer period of time. Since their invention, a lot of innovative progress has taken place over the years in terms of capacity building, improved efficiency, better design, niche engineering, portability, cost-effectiveness, etc. Fuel cells have the required potential to resolve issues like climate change, global warming and energy insecurity/shortage. This will help us to live sustainably and hand over a sustainable future to our upcoming generations. In the case of fuel cells, the basic principle is that a continuous feed of hydrogen and oxygen is required to run a pair of redox reactions which ultimately results in power generation. The major output is power and the by-product is pure water. Fuel cells are classified into several types based on the electrolyte they use, their operating temperature, etc. In this chapter, we shall comprehensively discuss the theory behind the fuel cell, its working principle, different types of fuel cells and their major components, their working procedure, loss-making factors and the major applications of fuel cells in various domains.