While this basic principle, which was discovered by Sir William Robert Grove as early as 1839 and defined as “cold combustion”, was used, for a long time, for rather more exotic applications such as satellite operation, new and extremely attractive application possibilities are emerging at present.
These range from the stationary generation of electricity and heat in residential houses, mobile applications in cars, buses, ships as well as the replacement of batteries in portable electronic devices.
Nowadays, fuel cells are recognised worldwide as efficient and clean energy converters whose potential uses are being investigated by all leading companies. Synergies, which will lead to a considerable reduction in fuel cell units, are to be expected particularly because of the great interest shown by the car and electronic industries. However, if they are to penetrate the market fully, many issues still have to be addressed, in terms of manufacture, storage, warehousing and transportation of hydrogen. For this reason, hydrogen is to be extracted from fossil energy sources by reforming in line with state-of-the-art-technology in the near future.
Alternatively, hydrogen can be produced e.g. from methanol, ethanol, formic acid and other liquids. On the long term however, renewable raw materials and the use of non-fossil fuels should ensure entry into the Hydrogen Age.
The FuMA-Tech product range cover all possible operations for fuel cells. The direct methanol fuel cell in particular, is suitable for use with non-fluorinated membranes. For this reason, the current development in portable applications is being viewed with particular optimism.