the.com/fuel cell
a power plant that drinks hydrogen and exhales nothing but drinkable water
means A device that generates electricity through a chemical reaction between a fuel (typically hydrogen) and an oxidant (usually oxygen), producing water and heat as byproducts rather than burning anything.
from "Fuel" descends through Old French "fouaille" from Latin "focus," meaning hearth or fireplace — the literal center of the home where the fire lived. "Cell" comes from Latin "cella," a small room or chamber, the same word that gave monks their cloistered quarters and biologists their microscopic compartments. The technology itself was demonstrated in the 19th century by the Welsh scientist William Grove, who reasoned that if running electricity through water splits it into hydrogen and oxygen, then reversing the process should yield electricity — a tidy bit of chemical logic that named the modern device, a "chamber" for "fire" that, fittingly, never quite catches flame.
- NASA history
- Apollo astronauts drank water made by their fuel cells
- Invented 1839
- William Grove built one before electric lightbulbs existed
- No combustion
- makes electricity chemically, with no flame or moving pistons
- Silent power
- submarines use them to run dead-quiet underwater
- Efficiency edge
- converts fuel to power more efficiently than engines
toyota mirai — hydrogen fuel cell sedan with 312-mile range, launched 2014
hyundai nexo — hydrogen fuel cell suv producing only water vapor, released 2018
ballard power systems — canadian company powering buses in vancouver and fuel cell trucks since 1979