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Fuel cells, an alternative to standard sources of energy

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  • Boudghene Stambouli, A.
  • Traversa, E.

Abstract

Three E's are the national energy policy drivers of any country of the world, Energy security, Economic growth and Environmental protection. A fuel cell is an energy conversion device that produces electricity by electrochemically combining fuel (hydrogen) and oxidant (oxygen from the air) gases through electrodes and across an ion conducting electrolyte. The principal characteristic of a fuel cell is its ability to convert chemical energy directly into electrical energy giving much higher conversion efficiencies than any conventional thermo-mechanical system thus extracting more electricity from the same amount of fuel, operate without combustion so they are virtually pollution free and have quieter operation since there are no moving parts. The emission of fuel cells running on hydrogen derived from a renewable source will be nothing but water vapour. Fuel cells are presently under development for a variety of power generation applications in response to the critical need for a cleaner energy technology. This paper reviews the existing or emerging fuel cells technologies, their design and operation, their limitations and their benefits in connection with energy, environment and sustainable development relationship. Few potential applications of fuel cell will be discussed.

Suggested Citation

  • Boudghene Stambouli, A. & Traversa, E., 2002. "Fuel cells, an alternative to standard sources of energy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 6(3), pages 295-304, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:rensus:v:6:y:2002:i:3:p:295-304
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    1. Silveira, José Luz & Braga, Lúcia Bollini & de Souza, Antonio Carlos Caetano & Antunes, Julio Santana & Zanzi, Rolando, 2009. "The benefits of ethanol use for hydrogen production in urban transportation," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(9), pages 2525-2534, December.
    2. Doukas, Haris & Patlitzianas, Konstantinos D. & Psarras, John, 2006. "Supporting sustainable electricity technologies in Greece using MCDM," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 129-136, June.
    3. Das, Himadry Shekhar & Tan, Chee Wei & Yatim, A.H.M., 2017. "Fuel cell hybrid electric vehicles: A review on power conditioning units and topologies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 268-291.
    4. Poullikkas, Andreas, 2007. "Implementation of distributed generation technologies in isolated power systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 11(1), pages 30-56, January.
    5. Stambouli, A. Boudghene, 2011. "Fuel cells: The expectations for an environmental-friendly and sustainable source of energy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(9), pages 4507-4520.
    6. van Biert, L. & Visser, K. & Aravind, P.V., 2020. "A comparison of steam reforming concepts in solid oxide fuel cell systems," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    7. Eklas Hossain & Hossain Mansur Resalat Faruque & Md. Samiul Haque Sunny & Naeem Mohammad & Nafiu Nawar, 2020. "A Comprehensive Review on Energy Storage Systems: Types, Comparison, Current Scenario, Applications, Barriers, and Potential Solutions, Policies, and Future Prospects," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-127, July.
    8. Baruah, Renika & Dixit, Marm & Basarkar, Pratik & Parikh, Dhrupad & Bhargav, Atul, 2015. "Advances in ethanol autothermal reforming," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 1345-1353.
    9. Andújar, J.M. & Segura, F., 2009. "Fuel cells: History and updating. A walk along two centuries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(9), pages 2309-2322, December.
    10. Li, Feng & Yuan, Yupeng & Yan, Xinping & Malekian, Reza & Li, Zhixiong, 2018. "A study on a numerical simulation of the leakage and diffusion of hydrogen in a fuel cell ship," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 177-185.
    11. Liu, Mingxi & Shi, Yang & Fang, Fang, 2014. "Combined cooling, heating and power systems: A survey," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 35(C), pages 1-22.
    12. Hajimolana, S. Ahmad & Hussain, M. Azlan & Daud, W.M. Ashri Wan & Soroush, M. & Shamiri, A., 2011. "Mathematical modeling of solid oxide fuel cells: A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 1893-1917, May.
    13. Sopian, Kamaruzzaman & Ali, Baharuddin & Asim, Nilofar, 2011. "Strategies for renewable energy applications in the organization of Islamic conference (OIC) countries," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(9), pages 4706-4725.
    14. Sandhu, Navjot Kaur & Hanifi, Amir Reza & Woldnik, Andrew & Amiri, Taghi & Etsell, Thomas H. & Luo, Jingli & Sarkar, Partha, 2016. "Electrochemical performance of a short tubular solid oxide fuel cell stack at intermediate temperatures," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C), pages 358-368.
    15. Makky, Ahmed Al & Alaswad, A & Gibson, Desmond & Olabi, A.G, 2017. "Renewable energy scenario and environmental aspects of soil emission measurements," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 68(P2), pages 1157-1173.
    16. Alanne, Kari & Saari, Arto, 2004. "Sustainable small-scale CHP technologies for buildings: the basis for multi-perspective decision-making," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 8(5), pages 401-431, October.
    17. Xuan, Jin & Leung, Michael K.H. & Leung, Dennis Y.C. & Ni, Meng, 2009. "A review of biomass-derived fuel processors for fuel cell systems," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(6-7), pages 1301-1313, August.
    18. José Rafael García-Sánchez & Ramón Silva-Ortigoza & Salvador Tavera-Mosqueda & Celso Márquez-Sánchez & Victor Manuel Hernández-Guzmán & Mayra Antonio-Cruz & Gilberto Silva-Ortigoza & Hind Taud, 2017. "Tracking Control for Mobile Robots Considering the Dynamics of All Their Subsystems: Experimental Implementation," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2017, pages 1-18, December.
    19. Chen, Hua-Qi & Wang, Xiuping & He, Li & Chen, Ping & Wan, Yuehua & Yang, Lingyun & Jiang, Shuian, 2016. "Chinese energy and fuels research priorities and trend: A bibliometric analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 966-975.
    20. Lucia, Umberto, 2014. "Overview on fuel cells," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 30(C), pages 164-169.
    21. Long, Rui & Li, Baode & Liu, Zhichun & Liu, Wei, 2015. "A hybrid system using a regenerative electrochemical cycle to harvest waste heat from the proton exchange membrane fuel cell," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 93(P2), pages 2079-2086.
    22. Chaurasia, Pramod Behari Lal & Panja, Nimai & Kendall, Kevin, 2011. "Performance study of power density in PEMFC for power generation from solar energy," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 36(12), pages 3305-3312.
    23. Kirubakaran, A. & Jain, Shailendra & Nema, R.K., 2009. "A review on fuel cell technologies and power electronic interface," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 13(9), pages 2430-2440, December.
    24. Das, Vipin & Padmanaban, Sanjeevikumar & Venkitusamy, Karthikeyan & Selvamuthukumaran, Rajasekar & Blaabjerg, Frede & Siano, Pierluigi, 2017. "Recent advances and challenges of fuel cell based power system architectures and control – A review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 10-18.

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