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News tagged with fuel cell

'Unzipped' carbon nanotubes could help energize fuel cells, batteries

Multi-walled carbon nanotubes riddled with defects and impurities on the outside could replace some of the expensive platinum catalysts used in fuel cells and metal-air batteries, according to scientists at ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created May 27, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Apple says data center will be all green

Apple says its $1 billion data center in Maiden, N.C., will include a second large solar farm to help power the site entirely by renewable energy by the end of this year.

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created May 21, 2012 | popularity 1.6 / 5 (7) | comments 0

Engineers develop novel system for producing conductive films

(Phys.org) -- Yale engineers have developed a novel automated system for generating strong, flexible, transparent coatings with promising uses in lithium-ion battery and fuel cell production, among other applications.

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created May 07, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

New harvesting approach boosts energy output from bacteria

A team of scientists from University of Colorado Denver has developed a novel energy system that increases the amount of energy harvested from microbial fuel cells (MFCs) by more than 70 times. The new approach also greatly ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Apr 25, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Chemists explain the molecular workings of promising fuel cell electrolyte

Researchers from New York University and the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart reveal how protons move in phosphoric acid in a Nature Chemistry study that sheds new light on the workings of a promising fuel cell electrolyte.

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Apr 22, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (4) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

In-situ observations reveal how nanoparticle catalysts lower operating temperatures in fuel cells

Researchers from the NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology and Arizona State University have used environmental transmission electron microscopy (ETEM) to explain the role of nickel nanoparticles in lowering the ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Apr 11, 2012 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Research finds bright future for alternative energy with greener solar cells

(Phys.org) -- Even alternative energy technologies can sometimes be a little greener, according to a Kansas State University graduate student's research.

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Apr 09, 2012 | popularity 3.6 / 5 (5) | comments 4

Apple plans nation's biggest private fuel cell energy project in NC

North Carolina will be home to the nation's largest private fuel cell energy project, a nonpolluting, silent power plant that will generate electricity from hydrogen.

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Apr 08, 2012 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (21) | comments 55

Powerful magnets help scientists create new materials for use in low-carbon energy

(PhysOrg.com) -- West Midlands scientists have created and studied new materials set to make low-carbon energy technologies like fuel cells cheaper and more efficient to run.

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Apr 06, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 2

Breakthrough could slash R&D time for next generation of hydrogen fuel cells

(PhysOrg.com) -- It took Thomas Edison two years and over 3,000 experiments to develop a marketable light bulb. It has taken 10 times that long and who-knows-how-many experiments to develop a system that is ...

Technology / Engineering

created Apr 04, 2012 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (10) | comments 13 | with audio podcast

'Tunable' metal nanostructures for fuel cells, batteries and solar energy

(PhysOrg.com) -- For catalysts in fuel cells and electrodes in batteries, engineers would like to manufacture metal films that are porous, to make more surface area available for chemical reactions, and highly ...

Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials

created Apr 03, 2012 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (8) | comments 3 | with audio podcast

Shooting at ceramics

Producing thin ceramic components has until now been a laborious and expensive process, as parts often get distorted during manufacture and have to be discarded as waste. Researchers are now able to reshape ...

Technology / Engineering

created Apr 02, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 2

Developing the next generation of fuel cells

(PhysOrg.com) -- UConn’s Center for Clean Energy Engineering has developed a new manufacturing process for fuel cells that could make highly efficient, fuel cell-powered vehicles a viable commercial option ...

Technology / Energy & Green Tech

created Mar 27, 2012 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (8) | comments 1 | with audio podcast

Fuel cells show potential

National Physical Laboratory scientists have developed an innovative fuel cell reference electrode that has been used to map changes in electrode potential inside a working polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM) ...

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Mar 20, 2012 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0

Researchers create more efficient hydrogen fuel cells

Hydrogen fuel cells, like those found in some "green" vehicles, have a lot of promise as an alternative fuel source, but making them practical on a large scale requires them to be more efficient and cost effective.

Chemistry / Materials Science

created Mar 15, 2012 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | comments 2 | with audio podcast

Fuel cell

A fuel cell is an electrochemical conversion device. It produces electricity from fuel (on the anode side) and an oxidant (on the cathode side), which react in the presence of an electrolyte. The reactants flow into the cell, and the reaction products flow out of it, while the electrolyte remains within it. Fuel cells can operate virtually continuously as long as the necessary flows are maintained.

Fuel cells are different from electrochemical cell batteries in that they consume reactant from an external source, which must be replenished – a thermodynamically open system. By contrast, batteries store electrical energy chemically and hence represent a thermodynamically closed system.

Many combinations of fuels and oxidants are possible. A hydrogen fuel cell uses hydrogen as its fuel and oxygen (usually from air) as its oxidant. Other fuels include hydrocarbons and alcohols. Other oxidants include chlorine and chlorine dioxide.

The principle of the fuel cell had been demonstrated by Sir William Grove in 1839, and other investigators had experimented with various forms of fuel cell. The first practical fuel cell was developed by Francis Thomas Bacon in 1959.

For more information about Fuel cell, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.