Pollution free energy from fuel cells

a portable fuel celleven as delhi protests against shortage of compressed natural gas (cng) for its vehicles, there is a renewable pollution free option that has not attracted much attention as an alternative. they are called fuel cells. fuel cell is a power-generation device that produces electricity through chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen.the residue products are clean water and lot of heat in contrast to fossil fuels that spew toxic fumes. a fuel cell operates like a battery. however, unlike a battery, it does not run down or require recharging. it produces energy in the form of electricity and heat as long as fuel is supplied. since the fuel cell relies on chemistry and not combustion, emissions from this type of a system is much smaller than emissions from the cleanest fuel combustion processes. fuel cells are popular in the us, canada, japan and other western countries where tough emission norms and regulations have advanced research on fuel cells. but in developing countries like india, it is still to come out of the research labs. the ministry for non-conventional energy sources has initiated projects on developing fuel cells. however, they still have to come out with a commercial variant. bharat heavy electrical ltd (bhel) and southern petrochemicals industries (spic) have developed prototypes. as of now mass production and usage in daily life is a far cry. bhel had recently demonstrated a 50 kw phosphoric acid fuel cell for the first time in india. globally phosphoric acid cells are commercially available and are being used in hospitals, nursing homes, hotels, office buildings, schools, utility power plants, an airport terminal. chennnai-based spic science foundation has developed india's only vehicle powered by a polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cell. these cells operate at relatively low temperatures, have high power density, can vary their output quickly to meet shifts in power demand, and are suited for applications, such as in automobiles, where quick start-up is required. apart from these, there are molten carbonate fuel cells, alkaline fuel cells that are used by nasa on space missions and solid oxide fuel cell that can be used in big, high-power applications, including industrial and large-scale central electricity generating stations. the tata energy research institute (teri) is also working on developing molten carbonate fuel cells and has tested a 200 watt cell recently. according to teri officials, "the fuel cell has 55 per cent efficiency as compared to 39 per cent from other conventional sources of energy." experts say that production cost and bulkiness of the fuel cells are major barriers in introducing it for commercial production. moreover, unlike their us counterparts, indian corporates are still ignorant about this alternative source of energy and lack of funds has prevented its faster growth in india, they add. "cost is a major constraint," said usha ra, consultant with undp. bhel officials have also said that prices have to be reduced drastically to make fuel cells vehicles competitive with petrol driven ones. according to estimates, currently fuel cell buses are almost 15-20 times costlier than petrol driven ones. bhel has submitted a proposal to the united nations development programme and global environment facility for demonstrating operation and testing of fuel cells buses for public transport in delhi. the concept of fuel cells is not new. the first fuel cells made appearance in 1839 but it was after the world war ii that they were used to produce useful amounts of power. in fact, nasa financed fuel cell projects in the 1960s and 70s over riskier nuclear power and more expensive solar energy. reports say that the apollo 13 accident was due to an explosion in its fuel cell oxygen tank. today, daimlerchrysler, ford, bmw, honda, volkswagon, nissan, renault all have projects where work is going on for incorporating fuel cells in automobiles. "there the strict pollution norms and competition to be first is driving the work in the west. in india more concerted effort is required to really come out with a viable option," said a teri official. apart from the cost factor, question mark has been put on the source of hydrogen for the fuel cells. oxygen used in these cells can be obtained from the air but hydrogen being highly unstable is not found naturally in many countries. it has to be broken away from compounds that contain the element. the most common hydrogen sources are hydrocarbon fuels like petrol. but use of petrol to obtain hydrogen defeats the whole purpose, as its extraction from them will produce pollutants. experts say even the use of methanol in fuel cell produce certain particles in air. however, teri officials say that hydrogen can be procured from industries where hydrogen is produced as a by-product. it can be extracted from cng and researchers are working to get hydrogen from bio waste. researchers add that problems like high-strength storage material can be resolved as work progresses. but one can not tackle the lack of political motivation, which leads to failures like kyoto protocol aimed at reducing global emission of green house gases. and, unless corporates come forward to adopt fuel cells as a clean, environment friendly alternative we cannot discard our dependence on fossil fuels.