Question

State five major advantages and disadvantages of fuel cells.

Answer 1

Answer:

A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions.

Explanation:

ADVANTAGES:-

• High Efficiency- when utilizing co-generation, fuel cells can attain over 80% energy efficiency.

• Good reliability- quality of power provided does not degrade over time.

• Noise- offers a much more silent and

smooth alternative to conventional

energy production.

• Environmentally beneficial- greatly reduces CO2 and harmful pollutant emissions.

• Size reduction- fuel cells are significantly lighter and more compact.

DISADVANTAGES:-

• Expensive to manufacture due the high cost of catalysts. (platinum)

• Lack of infrastructure to support the distribution of hydrogen.

• A lot of the currently available fuel cell technology is in the prototype stage and not yet validated.

• Hydrogen is expensive to produce and not widely available.