Engineering: Fuel Cells by Henry Petroski

APA Citation:

Petroski, H. (2003, Septempter-October). Engineering: Fuel Cells. American Scientist, 91(5), 398-402.

MLA Citation:

Petroski, Henry. "Engineering: Fuel Cells." American Scientist 91.5 (2003): 398-402. 5 February 2015. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/27858268>.

This article mainly covers the history and the current states of fuel cell technology. In the beginning, Petroski describes the invention of the gas cell battery by Sir William Grove in 1839, which is considered to be the beginning of fuel cells. These batteries were too complex for their time and lost popularity due to the invention of the dry cell battery. Once the electric motor was invented, very basic battery-powered cars began to emerge in 1882, allowing the fuel cells to gain attention again. Unfortunately, fuel cell car sales were stunted and shelved once Henry Ford's cheap Model T gained popularity in 1909. The last new model of the century came out in 1921, but was four times the price of the Model T.

Fuel cells did not come back until about 1960 and only very, very small numbers were produced. Most were used in NASA programs and some naval vehicles, such as submarines. In the late 1960's, proton-exchange membrane (PEM) cells were developed and caught the attention of Geoffrey Ballard, who would begin to find ways to make the cells smaller and more efficient so they could be used in vehicles or other devices. Ballard created a compressed fuel cell and was able to successfully get the attention of the automotive business, namely GM.

Fuel cells have been getting plenty of attention from engineers ever since, but there are many problems with the current fuel cell vehicles. The biggest problem centers around the fact that most of the fuel cells will be hydrogen powered. Harvesting this power is a common problem faced with these fuel cells and some researchers fear that a hydrogen economy will rise out of it. Also, there needs to be more engineers and technicians on hand with this new technology. Fuel cells are currently used in batteries and smaller devices such as cell phones, but more research is needed to determine a working vehicle model.

Petroski's article has a great historical summary that covers some of the biggest events in fuel cell development, which will come in handy in this paper. Petroski has written multiple histories on various other technologies, so his work in this journal is very credible. GM's Hy-Wire prototype is also described  in this article, making for a possible example to use in the paper. This article will be a great help in addressing and narrowing down the big events in fuel cell technology and in discussing the biggest issues and worries of fuel cell vechiles.