ABSTRACT
This chapter presents research progress on various fuel cell technologies linked to renewable energies toward a hydrogen economy. A description of efforts placed on the development of new materials to improve the performance and fuel efficiency in diverse types of fuel cell applications was presented. The chapter covers the importance of a hydrogen economy and discusses general thermodynamics of fuel cells. It shows the operating principle, components, and perspectives of different types of available fuel cells and offers a summary of the advances and prospective of this technology. There are six types of fuel cells suitable for different power demands, namely: polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs), direct alcohol fuel cells (DAFCs), alkaline fuel cells (AFCs), phosphoric acid fuel cells (PAFCs), molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs), and solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Fuel cell technology requires an energy balance analysis that should take into account energy conversion processes, electrochemical reactions and heat loss.
