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Common Misconceptions About Fuel Cells
- Fuel cells are not a new souce of energy, only a new way of using existing
energy supplies.
- Fuel cells do not run on water - they produce water by electrochemically oxidising hydrogen (combining with oxygen by means of a reaction which produces electricity. Hydrogen can be produced from water by the reverse process (electrolysis), but this requires an external energy source.
"Yes, my friends, I believe that water will one
day be employed as fuel, that hydrogen and
oxygen which constitute it... will furnish an
inexhaustable source of heat and light...Water
will be the coal of the future"
- Jules Verne, The Mysterious Island,1874.
He was wrong.
Water will never be a fuel, only a byproduct of energy production.