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In a hydrogen fuel cell, you have stored hydrogen. Whenever you want electricity, you combine it with oxygen to produce water. You can also drive the fuel cell
by abdullahkhalids 2y ago
In a hydrogen fuel cell, you have stored hydrogen. Whenever you want electricity, you combine it with oxygen to produce water. You can also drive the fuel cell in reverse, using an external source of electricity to convert water into hydrogen (which is stored)+oxygen.
In the iron-air cell, they are adding another layer of the process on top of the above, to avoid storing hydrogen.
To store power in the cell, you use electricity to break down water into hydrogen+oxygen. The hydrogen is then immediately reacted with FeO/rust to create Iron+water. These two are easy to store.
To get power from the cell, you allow the iron to combine with water, i.e iron+water=Rust+Hydrogen. The hydrogen is then immediately used in the fuel cell to produce electricity.
- taskforcegemini 2y agonot a day goes by where hn doesn't try to convince that rust is the future. jokes aside, thank you for this explanation.
- abdullahkhalids 2y agoNext day, comment, mostly to myself as an alternate way of writing the above. In a hydrogen fuel cell: Storage: electricity + water -> hydrogen + oxygen. Hydrogen is stored. Consume: hydrogen + oxygen -> water + electricity In the iron-air cell: Storage: (electricity + water) + rust -> oxygen + (hydrogen + rust) -> oxygen + water + iron. The iron is stored. Consume: (iron + water) + oxygen -> rust + (hydrogen + oxygen) -> rust + water + electricity Not as readable as I thought writing it.