ABSTRACT
Discovered in England in 1839 by Sir William Grove [1,2], the fuel cell is an electrochemical device which transforms directly the heat of combustion of a fuel (hydrogen, natural gas, methanol, ethanol, hydrocarbons, etc.) into electricity. The fuel is oxidized electrochemically at the anode, without producing any pollutants (only water and/or carbon dioxide are rejected in the atmosphere), whereas the oxidant (oxygen from the air) is reduced at the cathode. This process does not follow the Carnot’s theorem, so that higher energy effi ciencies are expected: 40%–50% in electrical energy, 80%–85% in total energy (electricity + heat production).
