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History

The fuel cell concept arises directly from the operating principle of the galvanic cell; it is in effect a galvanic cell in which the electrodes are supplied with reactants, allowing continuous operation without depleting the electrodes.

As early as 1880 Wilhelm Ostwald wrote: “I do not know whether all of us realise fully what an imperfect thing is the most essential source of power which we are using in our highly developed engineering – the steam engine” - indicating a growing awareness that chemical processes, such as those in galvanic cells, could approach 100% efficiency whereas the efficiencies of heat engines were limited by the Second Law to the Carnot efficiency of around 60%.

The fuel cell was first demonstrated in 1839 by William Grove . Unfortunately development of viable technology for exploitation of the principle has been slow, primarily due to the incompatibility of the required material properties (see Types of Fuel Cell for description of materials used). Inevitably the first uses were space and military applications, in which cost is of secondary importance to performance.

With increasing understanding of fuel cell and relevant materials science, driven by these specialist applications, there have been a number of false dawns when fuel cells have been proclaimed the solution to all of our energy needs, only to realise that there are inherent limitations on a particular technologies applications. This roller coaster road to development has however generated a wide range of fuel cell systems with one or more suitable for virtually every power application imaginable.

Fuel cell development timeline coming soon...

In the mean time The Smithsonian Institute give a good history of all fuel cell types.