Hydrogen and Fuel Cells

1. Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Wild Bill Erik Welch Trisha Kapes Danny O’Donnell Tim Marchetti

2. How Hydrogen and Fuel Cells Help Us Today -Fuel Cells empower any portable device -Also power our means of transportation -Hydrogen in the future can replace the petroleum we currently use in our cars and trucks

3. How It Works - Hydrogen is a versatile energy carrier that can be used to power nearly every end use energy need - Fuel Cell is an energy conversion device that captures and uses the power of hydrogen

4. Where It’s Being Used Now Hydrogen fuel cells used in spacecraft and other high tech applications where a clean power source is needed (ex: spacecraft, in electricity, cars, cell phones, etc.)

5. Costs/Availability • Companies commercially offer fuel cell power plants for about $3,000 per kilowatt. • Cost varies from $1 to $20 a kilo. • Currently, fuel cells are not cheap. • They are found in many organic compounds.

6. Concerns on the Environment • When the hydrogen is in a fuel cell car, only water vapor and heat are expelled from the tail pipe. • The process of burning fossil fuels to obtain the hydrogen is releasing carbon dioxide. • Carbon dioxide is the leading cause for global warming.

7. Other Concerns/Problems - Besides it’s high costs and difficult obtain ability, hydrogen fuel cells proves to be a rather efficient method for power.

8. Why Hydrogen Fuel Cells Aren't Being Used More - The use of hydrogen fuel cells is a rather clean method of producing power, but isn’t being used as much because of the high costs.