How Things Work: Fuel Cells

Curious about fuel cells and electric motor vehicles? In this appealing episode of How Matters Get the job done, we will just take you through the fascinating mechanics of gasoline cells and how they are utilised to propel electrical motor vehicles.

Believed reading through time: 3 minutes, 39 seconds.

If you cannot check out the online video, you can study the video transcription below:
Edited for clarity and readability

Pieter: (00:16)

Welcome to Let’s Communicate Automotive. And in this week’s episode on How Issues Do the job, I am heading to be using you by a technologies that you have in all probability previously heard of known as gasoline cells. And I’m likely to exhibit you how we use gas cells to propel electrical automobiles. Now in past episodes, we have spoken a whole lot about electrical autos, and in truth, you may well have even witnessed the phase exactly where we take a look at drove the Tesla Model X. Now fuel cells vary significantly in the way that they run in comparison to classic batteries. Now, if we have a seem at a direct-acid battery, it’s fairly a awful detail mainly because we’ve obtained an anode and a cathode, and we have got an acid normally acting as our electrolytes. So it truly is very a messy affair and not pretty environmentally friendly. And typical electric powered cars use lithium-ion batteries. And the moment all over again, all those lithium-ion batteries are essentially really devastating if we have a search at the whole footprint that happens in terms of mining them and then disposing of them at the stop of the day–not quite great for the natural environment. 

Pieter: (01:20)

So some of the brands early on when it came to the structure of electric vehicles, in reality, invested really heavily in fuel cell technologies. Now gasoline cells have been used for a lengthy time in the room station, for case in point, as a very clean up and successful way of offering electrical ability. And I am going to just take you by means of really briefly, how gasoline cells function and why I consider that some of the suppliers seriously should have on wondering about employing hydrogen-powered gasoline cells as an electricity resource for electric cars. And I think the moment I have demonstrated you, you can concur with me that this, maybe, is the way to go. 

So mainly, what we have is much the very same as a lead-acid battery we have an anode and a cathode, but the change below is that the anode above listed here is loaded up with hydrogen, and on the other side, the cathode has oxygen. And we also have a catalyst, and this catalyst is generally designed out of platinum. And what this catalyst does is it splits up our hydrogen into protons and electrons. Now what the oxygen does on this facet, is the oxygen appeals to the hydrogen protons and electrons to this aspect. But this membrane, which is identified as a proton exchange membrane, is so fine that it can in fact filter out the protons and let the protons to go by. But the electrons are also significant to go via this membrane, and so what happens to the electrons is that we drive them to vacation a even further route to get to the other aspect.

Pieter: (03:05)

And so what we have above in this article is all of our electrons going by way of this lengthier path, or this channel, right until they pop out on this aspect. Now the genius behind this is that we know, as with any other battery, when we have a stream of electrons, we have current stream and if we have bought present-day move, we are producing electric power. And all that happens when the electrons get to this aspect of the stack, is that the hydrogen protons and electrons then variety hydrogen once more, and the hydrogen then interacts with the oxygen and creates harmless water. So the only byproduct of this battery, in reality, is heat and a little little bit of water. And as very long as we have got a continual source of hydrogen, so we have a hydrogen tank in our vehicle, for example, then we are likely to have a continuous latest stream that is produced by means of this membrane.

Pieter: (04:04)
And if we have a complete large amount of these stacks put together, we then have adequate current that is generated to, in actuality, provide sufficient power for our electrical motors. 

So from my point of view, I feel that the gas cells are the way to go. The only obstacle, of training course, is that they are incredibly, pretty high priced and that has, I think to a big extent, place the brakes on their progress. Which is a very little bit of a pity due to the fact I consider that it is a excellent, clear alternate to even lithium-ion batteries. 

So I hope you found that helpful and have a greater comprehension on how fuel cells perform and until our next episode on How Things Perform, I glance ahead to observing you then. Cheers everyone.

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