History of Fuel Cell:
The principle of the fuel cell was discovered by German scientist Christian Friedrich Schönbein in 1838 and published in
the January 1839 edition of the "Philosophical Magazine". Based on this work, the first fuel cell was developed by Welsh
scientist Sir William Robert Grove in 1843. In 1955, W. Thomas Grubb, a chemist working for the General Electric Company
(GE), further modified the original fuel cell design by using a sulphonated polystyrene ion-exchange membrane as the
electrolyte. Afterwards GE went on to develop this technology with NASA, leading to it being used on the Gemini space
project. This was the first commercial use of a fuel cell. UTC's Power subsidiary was the first company to manufacture and
commercialize a large, stationary fuel cell system for use as a co-generation power plant in hospitals, universities and
large office buildings, and is developing fuel cells for automobiles, buses, and cell phone towers; the company has
demonstrated the first fuel cell capable of starting under freezing conditions with its proton exchange membrane
automotive fuel cell.

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This technology is already being used by several companies such as Honda which leased it's first hydrogen car in 2005 to a family
in Redondo Beach, California, and several others are developing prototypes to start comercializing them in the near future.

Fuel cell cars are mainly formed by a fuel cell tank, which carry the fuel type, some may have a compressor, to compress the fuel, because there is still no regulation on
how the fuels will be delivered to the cosumer, a fuel cell, which will convert the fuel into electricity, a converter to make the right adjustments to the current, a battery pack,
to store the energy produced and finally the electric motor to propel the car.

After a century of constant improvements, the internal combustion engine still only converts on average about 16 percent of the energy in gasoline to turn the car's wheels.
All heat engines have efficiencies limited by the Carnot Cycle. The theoretical thermodynamic derivation of the Carnot Cycle shows that even under ideal conditions, a heat
engine, used to power a vehicle or generator, cannot convert all the heat energy supplied to it into mechanical energy. Some of the heat energy is rejected. In an internal
combustion engine, the engine accepts heat from a source at a high temperature (T1), converts part of the energy into mechanical work and rejects the remainder to a
heat sink at a low temperature (T2). The greater the temperature difference between source and sink, the greater the efficiency:

Fuel cell vehicles, not limited by the Carnot Cycle, are expected to achieve energy efficiencies of 40 to 45 percent and very possibly higher. Given this significant
improvement in energy efficiency, fuel cell vehicles offer substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, and higher mileage too.

Fuel cell vehicles have already proven much more efficient than similar internal combustion vehicles. Toyota has published their efficiency results showing their
conventional gasoline vehicle having a tank-to-wheel efficiency of only 16%, while their FCVH-4 running on hydrogen shows a 48% tank-to-wheel efficiency - an amazing
three times more efficient. GM has also announced that their fuel cell prototypes running on hydrogen have twice the efficiency of their conventional gasoline vehicles.

As fuel cell vehicles begin to operate on fuels like natural gas or gasoline, greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by 50%. In the future, the combination of high
efficiency fuel cells and fuels from renewable energy sources will nearly eliminate greenhouse gas emissions.

Because fuel cell vehicles operate with electric motors which have very few moving parts (only those pumps and blowers needed to provide fuel and coolant), vehicle
vibrations and noise will be vastly reduced and routine maitenence (oil changes, spark plug replacement) will be eliminated.

Fuel cells also have a great advantage over battery powered electric vehicles because they eliminate charging time, allow a wide range of speeds, and operate as long as
fuel is supplied.

Throughout the world, over one billion people, living in urban areas are suffering from severe air pollution, and according to the World Bank, over 700,000 deaths result
each year.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), today's motor vehicles in the U.S. account for: 65% of U.S. oil consumption, 78% of all carbon monoxide
emissions, 45% of nitrogen oxide emissions and 37% of volatile organic compounds.

Also, for every gallon of gasoline manufactured, distributed, and then consumed in a vehicle, roughly 25 pounds of carbon dioxide are released.

If hydrogen is carried onboard and used as fuel with a fuel cell vehicle, they will have zero emissions. Fuel cell vehicles operated on methanol, hydrogen or other
alternative fuels can achieve emission levels for carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, and non methane organic gas far less than those levels established for the California
Ultra Low Emission Vehicle standards, and approaching almost zero emissions.

Benefits obtainable with only a 10% penetration of the light-duty vehicle market by fuel cell vehicles include avoided emissions of regulated air pollutants of more than 1
million tons per year, and carbon dioxide reduction of 60 million tons per year.

Fuel cell vehicles will also save the consumer money in many ways. First of all, maintenance costs will be minimal since a fuel cell vehicle has practically no moving parts.
The consumer will also be able to use their fuel cell vehicle like an electric generator, connecting it to their home and decreasing their paid electricity use from the grid or
even supplying supplemental energy back to the grid during peak hours and getting paid for it.

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